


Stand Dust (A RWBY X JoJo's Bizzare Adventures Crossover)

by Makir



Category: RWBY, ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Genre: (Time is distorted here in Remnant), Action, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Violence, Character Death, Crossover, Gen, Long, No Smut, Original Character Death(s), Part 4 spoilers, Some Character Tags Might Not Be Listed, Tags May Change, Warnings May Change, perspective change, post-stardust crusaders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2018-08-31 21:17:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 85
Words: 176,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8594128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Makir/pseuds/Makir
Summary: Set after the end of Part 3, Kujo Jotaro, while returning home after defeating DIO, suddenly finds himself in an unkown world, this world is called "Remnant", and he should not be there.





	1. Prologue: Returning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here it is, my first Fanfiction, and on two shows that probably have the least bit of synergy, but since they're my two obsessions, might as well write something about it, right?  
> Any and all reviews, tips, and pieces of criticism will be appreciated greatly

It was over, DIO was defeated, and their journey was finally over.

After saying goodbye to their companion Polnareff, Kujo Jotaro and Joseph Joestar, often simply called Mr. Joestar, came back to Japan at the first chance they got, and entered the large Kujo residence, "We're back!" Joseph shouted, opening the front door, and then, he was tackled by a woman! To be more specific, her daughter, Holly Kujo, "Yay! You're both back! The doctors all took care of me, but I still felt so lonely!" She said while hesitantly detaching herself from the hug, Joseph laughed a bit, while Jotaro stayed silent, "Heh, I know right? This business trip took way longer than expected!"

And in fact, this 'business trip' took almost two months, the trip to go to Cairo and save Holly's life, it was a long and difficult mission, and many people died along the way, but they managed to do it. Joseph hugged his daugther as Jotaro tried to walk past her, face expressionless as ever, "Jotaro! I bet you thought about me a lot when you were out, right?" Holly said, turning her head towards her son, smiling, Jotaro just muttered a "Stop shouting, you're annoying" as he walked down the hallway, Holly, still smiling, ran right beside him, asking him what would he want for dinner, Joseph couldn't help but smile, everything came back to normal.

The next day, Joseph visited the residence one more time before going back in America the following day, he rang the doorbell, and the one who opened the door was Holly, however, she looked quite troubled, which was pretty rare, making Joseph instantly worried too, "Hey, daddy, have you seen Jotaro anywhere? When I woke up, he wasn't in his bed, or anywhere...", Joseph immediatly came up with the worst-case scenario, could Jotaro have been attacked? No, why would he? DIO was dead, and any of his remaining minions wouldn't have any reason to attack him, maybe revenge? However, there was no time to lose, "I'll check if he's at school, i'll be right back!" He said, trying to cover up his worries, Holly smiled at him, "Thank you, dad, but I don't think there's any reason to wo-" Before she could finish the phrase, Joseph had already gone to his car, and started driving towards the high school

Nothing, he wasn't there, sure, he was a delinquent, but it wasn't like him to just suddenly dissapear like that, he was about to come back to Holly to give her the bad news, before suddenly getting a call while he was entering his car, it was Holly, he couldn't even start to speak as she started to shout "Daddy! Come here! I found something strange in Jotaro's room! It's some weird glowing crystal!"

Holly was crouched on the ground, looking down at the weird, glowing red crystal, it didn't look like something natural, it was too...Perfectly shaped to be, Joseph was standing by the door, scratching his white beard as he got closer, "Don't touch it, Holly!" He said while he too crouched down, could it be part of a Stand? Only one way to find out, he reached out his gloved hand towards the crystal, picking it up, no, it was not part of a Stand, he could actually pick it up, the crystal felt kinda warm to the touch, but nothing else, where did this crystal come from? And why was it in Jotaro's room?

[To Be Continued] --> 


	2. Their Ending Is Our Beginning

"Do you even know where we're supposed to go?" Ruby asked for the fourth time, "Stop asking that! I don't know, okay?" Weiss quickly replied, for how long have they been walking around the Emerald Forest? An hour? Two hours? They didn't want to admit it, but they lost their sense of time and direction while walking there. "Weee're lost." Said Ruby, looking down, the other students probably managed to find what they were looking for already.

It's just then that they stumbled upon something...No, they stumbled upon someone, it was a small clearing in the forest, and a person was laying on the ground, "Uh? Who's this guy? A student?" Weiss slowly approached the guy laying down, and just then his eyes snapped open, surprising both girls and making them back away just a little, "Hehe, bad landing, huh?" She said as the stranger slowly stood up, he was huge, intimidatingly huge, he seemed to be waring some sort of uniform, though it didn't look a Beacon uniform, and a heavy-looking chain was attached near one of the shoulders, and a hat on his head, he looked around with an expressionless face. "Where am I?" He asked,  Weiss got the feeling he wasn't a student, not from Beacon anyway, but Ruby probably has yet to notice "Uuh...This is the Emerald Forest, the place where we're supposed to do the exam?" Ruby said, like it's something he should know already, but he just looked at her with a blank expression, "What the hell are you talking abo-" His words were cut off by a sudden rustling of a bush, he instinctivelly turned around, and suddenly, a black, werewolf-shaped creature lounged towards him with killing intent,  it was a Beowolf.

Before either Ruby Or Weiss could even take out their weapons, something appeared right in front of the stranger, it was...Something humanoid, with wild hair and a large, silver-colored body, it seemed to be about the height of the stranger, and possibly even more muscular. The humanoid being, seemingly out of instinct, threw a punch towards the Beowolf with a loud "ORA!", the hit connected, hitting the Beowolf on the chin, and it was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but Ruby could have sworn she saw the lower teeth of the Beowolf detaching themselves due to the blow, the Grimm made a slight yelp as it was flung towards a tree, and after a moment or two, dissapeared.

What was that? Ruby never saw something like that, even Weiss had her mouth agape in surprise, the stranger turned to face them, "What the hell was that?! A Stand?!" He shouted at them, Stand? They never heard of anything like that. "N-No, that's a Grimm! How could you not know?" Ruby shouted, in what kind of corner of the world was he from to have never even heard of a Grimm? "What the hell is that thing anyway?" Weiss asked, pointing her finger at the humanoid creature hovering behind the stranger.

* * *

_They can see my Stand? So they must be Stand Users._ he thought. "Grimm, huh?" He had no idea what that meant, but if that thing that attacked him was a Grimm, then they seemed to be enemies, but those girls didn't seem to be enemies, so he just decided to ask it directly, "No need to play dumb, if one of you is a Stand User, then one of you must have been the one to bring me here". The girl in red looked towards the one in white, "W-What's he talking about, Weiss?" The one in red asked, the other one, arms crossed and a stern look, said "How would I know?". This was getting pretty annoying, he tipped his hat over his eyes, and closed them "Give me a break" He muttered, 

 The red-dressed bubbly one approached him, a smile on her faced, "In any case! What's your name?" She asked, eyeing first him, and then at Star Platinum, Jotaro looked down at her, she was pretty small, couldn't have been any older than 16, couldn't hurt to say it. "...Jotaro Kujo" He simply said, turning around in order to look around the area, this place was called the Emerald Forest, it seems he was no longer in Japan, was this the work of a Stand? And the Stand of who? Though those girls seem to somehow being able to see his Stand they didn't seem to know about Stands themselves, of course, there was always the possibility of them tricking him. After a moment of awkward silence, the red girl decided to break it "N-Nice to meet you! My name's Ruby Rose, and the grumpy one there is Weiss Schnee!" She said, first pointing at herself and then at the girl called Weiss, who looked kind of impatient "Are we done now? I have no intention of being the last one that finds the relics"

Jotaro didn't turn around to look at them, too busy scouting the area, Ruby sighed gave him little wave "Fine fine, see ya, maybe!" she said as she rushed towards her companion, walking away from the clearing...Or at least the would have, but as Jotaro noticed just a second before it happened, a huge creature shaped like a bear with white spikes on its back suddenly appeared from the shadows, clawing at them and forcing them to dodge, forcing them back into the clearing, "What?! Another Grimm in the same place?!" Ruby shouted, grabbing something that was strapped to the back of her dress, what was it? To Jotaro it looked like a huge piece of metal, Weiss too was now wielding something, a rapier, then, before Jotaro could even say anything, the piece of metal that Ruby grabbed suddenly transformed, it turned into a huge, red scythe, it was about as tall as her, if not even more, he was geniuenly surprised that a small girl like that could wield something that huge.

* * *

Ruby jumped towards the Ursa, Crescent Rose in hand, and at the same time, Weiss created a symbol in midair, giving her a platform on where to jump to, certainly a more refined way of jumping towards a target, in any case, they both target the Ursa, weapons in hand, and...Both butt heads while in mid-air, making them lose momentum and fall on the ground, "Hey!" Weiss shouted, "Watch where you're jumping!", Ruby had no time to talk back however, as the claw of the Ursa was aimed right at her, dodging by a hair's breath and springing back on her feet, Jotaro  was wide-eyed at first at this display, but forced his expression back to his, well, expressionless self, he was about to rush towards them, when suddenly, another Ursa appeared behind him, "ORA!" with that same war cry, the humanoid being, that the girls could only guess was a 'Stand', blocked the Ursa's claw with one arm right before it managed to hit him, and with the free arm punched the Ursa square in the face, making it stagger backwards.

Meanwhile, the uncoordinated duo was still unable to land a hit on the first Ursa, due to one accidentally blocking the other while attacking. "Stop placing yourself right in front of me!" Weiss shouted as she almost stabbed Ruby by accident, "Can't you just wait a little? Urgh!" Ruby replied, getting frustrated, It was obvious that it was the first time both of them fought as a team, but finally, Ruby managed to score a hit, slashing the torso of the Ursa and then pulling the trigger of Crescent Rose, and then, from the head of the scythe, a bullet was shot out at high speed, hitting the Ursa square in the chest and pushing Ruby's body back, however, the Ursa was not done yet, it went on all fours, rushing towards the two. Then it was Weiss's turn, she ran in front of the Ursa, and then stopped, taking a deep breath while going into position, a loud "ORA ORA ORA!" could be heard from behind them, and some loud crunching noises like bones shattering, it was definetly Jotaro having taken care of the Ursa.

The remaining Ursa, roaring in anger, rushed at full speed and brought down it's claw at Weiss, the blow was quickly deflected by a barrier, making it slightly stagger backwards, taking the chance, Weiss quickly and elegantly stabbed the chest of the Ursa multiple times, maybe about a dozen of times, after that, the Ursa fell to the ground, and dissapeared, Weiss took a deep breath, and exhaled

* * *

The Grimm fell down with a thud, Star Platinum dissapearing, "Good grief, this is a dangerous place, I need to get the hell out of here" He turned to face Ruby and Weiss, both finished off their opponent, "You two, show me the way out of this forest" He simply said, Weiss turned to look at him in disgust, "Are you trying to give me orders or something? Who do you think you are?". At those words, Jotaro gave her an ice-cold glare, and quickly, Weiss gave one back, they stared at eachother like this for about twenty seconds before Ruby talked "I...Think we should at least bring him with us! I mean, he does not seem like a bad guy, and he could help us..." She said, as if attempting to persuade Weiss, after a bit of hesitation, Weiss closed her eyes and sighed, "Fine, you can come with us" She said, looking away and putting her rapier back in place, Ruby made a fistbump "Let's go then!"

And so they did, wandering through the trees of the Emerald Forest

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As one might have already noticed, the horizontal lines signify a change of perspective. If you might have noticed, in Jotaro's perspective Star Platinum was reffered, while in the other's perspective it was not, same thing with Ruby's and Weiss's weapons


	3. A Darker Shade Of Emerald

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap, 40+ hits in one day? I barely expected a few hits!  
> Thanks a lot to External for giving me tips, if this Fic goes anywhere, it's thanks to you

The newly estabilished group had wandered for about thirty minutes without encountering much trouble, Jotaro was a little bit behind Ruby and Weiss, making them take the lead, there was a bit of awkwardness in the air, no one said anything to the other untill Ruby tried to break the ice, "Soo, Jotaro, where are you from?" she asked, looking at him, he didn't reply for a moment, but then simply said "Japan", of course both of them had no idea where that place could possibly be, so they just assumed it was a far away village "Well...Um, sounds like a nice place!" Ruby added, and then silence returned to the trio.

They couldn't see it, but Jotaro was lookin at Ruby's and Weiss's weapon, analyzing them, why were these little girls wielding such dangerous things?  That scythe in particular looked extremely heavy, but in the earlier fight she handled it like it had no weight at all, it was also a gun too, making Jotaro wonder who the hell designed such a thing, but just as he was thinking that, Ruby started talking again, how annoying, "Y'know, you don't look like you're from Beacon, how did you end up here?", Jotaro sighed at the question, and didn't bother replying, he didn't know himself the answer to that question, out of all the bizzare situation he found himself in this one took the cake, he felt like he was in some sort of alien world that wasn't bound by the rules of his own.

"Hey! Look out!" Ruby called out to him as his face smacked against a high tree branch, he was so deep in his thoughts he didn't even bother seeing forward, this didn't happen to him a lot, Weiss sighed as Ruby kept a hand in front of her mouth in order to contain her laughter, before noticing that the branch left a very shallow cut on Jotaro's cheek, but he didnt' seem to notice or care "Hey, you don't have your Aura activated!" she said geniuenly surprised, resulting in a confused stare on Jotaro's part, to which Weiss added, "Come on, this guy does not even know what a Grimm is! how could he possibly have his Aura activated?" she said, almost as if trying to anger Jotaro, "Shut the hell up, both of you" he simply said, and once again silence returned, what an awkward situation

* * *

Weiss simply couldn't understand on why Ruby trusted this guy, he didn't know anything and almost seems like he's out of a different world entirely, and that...thing that he summons, that 'Stand', it was powerful and fast, if she tried to fight him head-on, she would probably lose, he was suspicious, extremely so. "Weiss? Weeeiss...?" Ruby said, waving her hand in front of her face as if to grab her attention, "Urgh, what?" Weiss said in an annoyed tone, then Ruby pointed right in front of her, and all of them could see that the forest ended there "I think I see the ruins! And there doesn't seem to be anyone there yet!"

As they exited the forest, they could see it clearer, in the middle of nowhere there was what looked like the ruins of a small building, but the only thing that remained now where a small bit of the floor and several small pillars, and as they noticed, there were four chess pieces, one on each pillar, Weiss flashed a smile for the first time since she entered the Forest, "Finally!" she said as she quickly approached the ruins, wait, there are more than four pillars, though those didn't have chess pieces on them, which could only mean one thing, "Wait, almost everyone already took their relics already!" she shouted, Ruby, who was right beside her, sighed and grabbed one of the chess pieces, a white pawn, while Weiss took a white horse, Jotaro looked at them without saying or touching anything, "Let's go back" Ruby simply said, pocketing the chess piece, but before they could even move, they heard something...From above?

All of them looked up at the sky, and what they saw bordered the line from awesome to stupid, a Nevermore, a gigantic crow Grimm, was flying low above them, but it was not flying normally, it was moving arround erratically like it was trying to shake off something from itself, and as it went lower and lower, they saw it, two girls, one with long yellow hair and one with black hair and a ribbon on top of it, Ruby recognized them both, it was her sister Yang, and the girl she met her first day at Beacon, Blake. "Wooohooo!" Yang shouted enthusiastically while on top of the Nevermore's back, she seemed like she was having the time of her life, meanwhile Blake looked petrified, gripping on one of the wings and trying to not get shaked off, "This was a really stupid idea!" she shouted back at Yang, but the blond girl didn't bother listening, she activated her gauntlets, pointing down at the Nevermore, she shot out two bullets at once, making the Grimm croak in pain as the recoil sends her flying, "Sorry to leave you hanging, Blake!" the cheerful blondie shouted as she went up and up, and then down, Blake groaned as she reluctantly grabbed Gambol Shroud and jumped off the Nevermore, just in time, since the Nevermore was quickly descending due to Yang's brutal hit.

* * *

 

There were few things that could leave Jotaro with wide eyes and an agape mouth, this...Came close to being one of those moments, even if not quite, "Good grief, another two of these?" He said as the black-haired girl and they blond girl landed on the ground. Normally a fall like that would have noticeable effect on a person, yet those two didn't have so much as a scratch on them,  _That girl, Ruby, mentioned something about "Aura" when I started bleeding, could that "Aura" be the reason on why they weren't hurt?_ He thought, the two girls started to rush towards the ruins, and Jotaro noticed something, the blond haired girl...Winked at him? No, not at him, she winked at Ruby, who was right beside him, "Good work, Yang!" Ruby shouted as Yang grabbed one of the chess pieces, the black haired girl grabbed one too just as the bird-like Grimm almost stopped itself from slamming into the ground, however, after a side glance at eachother, Weiss and Ruby pointed their weapons at the Nevermore, Jotaro stood back and observed them, Ruby looked through the scope of her Scythe gun, one hand on the trigger, and while looking at Weiss, he noticed that the rapier she was carrying had some sort of revolving chamber near the hilt with different colors on each slot of it.

Ruby's bullets pierced the Grimm's wings just as it was trying to gain altitude, then a symbol appeared on the tip of the blade, a blue one, and then multiple 'blasts' of blue energy were shot out from the tip, hitting the Grimm and wounding it further, it shrieked in pain as it went down unable to fly, it wasn't dead yet, but it couldn't fly properly anymore, it was a good thirty meters away from the group, croaking and trying to uselessly flap it's wings, the girl called Yang approached the three, having just pocketed the relic, "Good work, you two!" She said, before looking at jotaro, "Hmm, have I met you before? Don't think I did, in any case, thanks for...Standing around like a statue and doing nothing, I guess" she said with a smile, and then called out to the black haired girl "Blake! Get over here!", but Jotaro didn't look if she did get closer, he noticed something else instead, Weiss was looking wide-eyed at a certain point, what was it? It looked like the entrance of a cave, situated near a cliff, what was so surprising? But then he noticed after a second later, a dozens, no, about three dozen Grimm were crawling out of the cave, most of them looked like that werewolf Grimm he fought earlier, some of them looked like those bear Grimms, and more and more of them were exiting out of the cave, heading towards them.

All of them, excluding Jotaro, remained wide-eyed at the scene, it was an entire army of Grimm, stationed near the Ruins

[To Be Continued]-->

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Does the tree branch scene feel familiar? Well, it should  
> N.2: I don't remember at all who took which chess pieces, so I just made it up  
> N.3 Yep, no Team JNPR here, in this version of the Story, they already got the relics and got out of there


	4. The Horde Of Emerald Forest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 80+ hits already? Holy crap  
> One thing i'm saddened about though is the lack of comments on this fic, I would really love to hear what the people who read this fic think of it, be it positive or negative.  
> In any case, you all should expect a new chapter every couple of days in the weekdays.

Professor Ozpin looked down on his Scroll through his thin glasses: The screen showed four young ladies and one young man standing near the ruins of the temple, it wasn't just a second later that the students showed clear shock on their faces, and in fact right in front of them there were about fifty Grimm, a very unusual number around these areas.

Ozpin took a quick sip from his coffee mug as he looked at the scene, showing a simple expression on his face, behind him were the students that got the relics and already came back. One of them, a young man called Jaune Arc, nervously approached the Headmaster, peeking over his shoulder to look at the scroll. "Shouldn't we...Uh, help them?" He asked, both Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch, who was standing right beside him, shook their heads, "Teachers can't interfere with the test, and beside, they're a talented bunch" Ozpin quickly replied.

He didn't lie when he said that, however one thing did worry him, that man that was with them wasn't one of his students, he was a complete stranger, and that 'power' that he carried with him clearly wasn't of this world, it was not a weapon or a Semblance, but something completely different.

Ozpin squinted his eyes and took another sip, "Let's just see where this goes"

* * *

 

The Grimms snarled and growled as they slowly approached the five, the not-yet-dead Nevermore groaked and tried to move around, almost ecstatic that reinforcement came. All of the girls took out their weapons, Jotaro instead just stood there with his hands on his pockets, "There's too many of them! We got to run!" Blake shouted, but it was too late, Ruby was already rushing towards the horde, with Yang quickly following her.

Blake sighed, and started to rush in too, Weiss gave Jotaro an ice-filled stare, as if to silently say "Make yourself useful" before running towards the group, him quickly following suit, muttering "Give me a break".

There were many of them, however Beowolves weren't exactly renown for their stenght or durability, and Ruby, shouting "Hiiya!", was having a rather easy time cutting them down, a single well placed strike of Crescent Rose was able to cut them in half or decapitate them, the only real threat came from their sheer numbers, however as everyone else joined in on the fight even that threat seemed to be eliminated, the only real threat were the Ursas.

"Star Platinum!" Jotaro shouted as his Stand was summoned, punching clean through a Beowolf's skull and killing it instantly with a loud "ORA!", "Wow! The hell's that?" shouted Yang, which was for now occupied with an Ursa, the Ursa was swinging wildly with it's claws, but couldn't manage to even scratch Yang, she jumped up on the air, and collided her gauntlet-covered fist with the Ursa's face, these types of Grimm tended to be much more durable than Beowolves, but the hit seemed to be enough to crack the Ursa's skull open like an egg in any case.

It was....A very easy battle, underwelmingly so, in just a few minute they wiped out about half of the Grimms, including the immobilized Nevermore, but in the meantime the group was able to observe Jotaro's power more clearly, that thing that he summoned, the "Stand", was quick and precise as a machine, and the rushes of punches were maddeningly powerful, Jotaro always stood beside or in front of it, calmly observing and never attacking directly, only sometimes shifting out of the way to avoid an incoming claw or bite.

However, as the one-sided battle continued, at one point everyone backed away to listen, rustling, a loud rustling, it was coming from the Emerald Forest, Jotaro turned his head to look at the forest on his side, and after a few seconds, it happened. A few trees were knocked down by the oncoming creature, it was huge, more in width than in height, and had a scorpion-like body with a white armor running through it all, it was running around wildly and swinging the gigantic yellow stinger around, the reason was obvious, someone was gripping on to the stinger for dear life, "HEEELP MEE!" The man screamed.

* * *

 

Jotaro's eyes went wide with surprise, he recognized that man, and how couldn't he? That bizzare pillar-shaped hair, the baggy black outfit that did not cover his muscles at all, those screams, it was his companion Jean Pierre Polnareff. Before he could even do anything, two other giant scorpions appeared from the forest.

"Deathstalkers!" Blake shouted, after cutting the head off a a Grimm, and then continued "We have to run!", she didn't even seem to notice the screaming, flailing men on top of one of them, the others seemed to agree as they began to back away, and that's when Jotaro did one of the most reckless actions he did in a while: Determined, he started to run towards the group of Deathstalkers, and after the first one got inside Star Platinum's range, he recklessly started to strike it with more than a dozen punches, "ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!" Star Platinum shouted as his fists rained blows on the Grimm, the armor of the Deathstalker cracked a bit, and as retaliation swinged its stinger down at Jotaro, while Polnareff was still on it, "AAAAAAH!" he shouted gripping even thighter, SP's rush stopped as Jotaro was forced to dodge, the stinger first impaling itself on the ground, and then going back up.

And meanwhile, the four girls were holding back the remaining Grimms "W-What the hell is that guy thinking?!" Weiss shotued, bewildered "He's going to get himself killed!". "Wait, look!" Ruby said while pointing towards the first Deathstalker, and then looked through her scope, "There's someone on top of the first one's tail!" she then added.  Blake eyed Yang for a second, muttering "Is riding Grimm's a trend now or something?", then, before they could stop her Ruby started to dash towards Jotaro, well, dashing was underastimating it, she was going so fast that the other girls, or anyone there in fact, could barely see her, and just in a few seconds she was right there.

"Taaaake this!" Ruby shouted as she firmly planted her scythe on top of the Deathstalker's head, but the Grimm resisted and swung the tail towards her, intending to hit her side, she quickly tried to dodge, but was too late, the stinger, and the screaming Polnareff, hit her by the side, making her fly back and hit the trunk of a tree, that was definetly a hit that would break a few bones, however she didn't seem all that damaged, just a bit disoriented, and just then were the two other Deathstalkers getting near them. "Good grief" Jotaro muttered, "Seem i'll have to be more quick about this, then", he then jumped towards the first Deathstalker, avoiding the pincers, and landed on top of the body, and then suddenly shouted "STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!" 

* * *

She didn't know what happened just know, but as she opened her eyes, she could sense and see that someone was carrying her on their shoulder and was running, this particular 'someone' being Jotaro. "Hey! Stop that!" She shouted. and then slipped out of his hold, and started running beside him, he had a bruised man on his other shoulder, the same one that was hanging on top of the Deathstalker's tail, "H-How did you go so fast?!" She shouted, even with her semblance couldn't go this quickly, but he didn't reply.

The others, who just finished off the horde, were also shocked, in the blink of an eye Jotaro somehow seemed to grab both the wounded man and Ruby, and started to run their way, but there was no time to wonder about what happened, those three Deathstalkers were still running straight towards them, "Let's help them!" Yang shouted, and with a  _click_ unloaded her gauntlets, empty shells falling on the ground, and then reloaded as quickly.

Ruby suddenly turned around and once again rushed towards the Grimm as Jotaro calmly retreated.  Weiss, Blake and Yang didn't take much longer to arrive, and with a nod, they all attacked at once. Yang propelled herself upwards and grinned as she uppercutted the first Deathstalker's stinger, hitting it hard enough to make it detach from the tail, she then punched it again, impaling one of the other Deathstalkers with it, crippling both significantly, "Nice one, Yang!" Ruby complimented her sister, she and Blake were occupied avoiding the pincers and raining direct blows the the head of the Grimm.

Thanks to Star Platinum's earlier blows, the armor of the Grimm was significantly damaged, and the blows only made the crack worse and worse, meanwhile Weiss took upon herself to distract the other two, and thanks to the Ice Dust in one of the slots in her sword's revolving chamber, managed to freeze the ground and create several ice spikes portruding from the ground, sopping both of them to a halt, at least untill the ice melted down.

Finally, Yang was able to finish off the first Deathstalker by slamming her fists against the alerady cracked armor, the force of the blow made it crack into pieces and without making a sound the Deathstalker slumped to the ground, and started to dissapear. "Two left!" Ruby exclaimed, running towards the two that were stuck in the ice, which already was melting down.

The fight quickly turned more chaotic, Ruby and Weiss took care of the impaled Deathstalker, while Blake and Yang fought against the unhurt one, but something surprised the team, the impaled Grimm was not at all crippled, if anything in fact it was going even faster and more viciously at the two, pincers swinged wildly, Weiss, surprised by the ferocity of the Grimm, hesitated just a second before attacking, that second was all it took for the pincers to viciously grab her, "A-Aah!" She shouted as the Deathstalker tried to crush her. Her aura was protecting her, but it would not last long if she didn't break free.

"Weiss!" Ruby ran towards her, slashing away at the pincer with her scythe, but it was no use, the Deathstalker was using all of it's strength to crush Weiss.  Ruby had an idea, she shot the ground behind her to propell herself upwards, and then up in mid-air to propell down again, she then smacked the impaled stinger with the flat of the scythe, running it deeper inside the flesh, and just with that the Grimm released the grip on Weiss, and promptly died.

Weiss took a breath of relief and dusted off her white dress, "I...Did not exactly NEED your help, okay?" she said, arms crossed, Ruby snickered a bit at her stubborness, and looked over at the other two, both of them were just about done with their opponent, Blake seemed to somehow permanently tie the stinger to the ground with her whip, buying her and Yang enough time to hammer hits on the body.

Weiss crossed her arms while looking at the scene, and then looked at Ruby, "Where did that useless stone-faced guy go to anyway?" she asked, to which Ruby could only shrug in response.

* * *

 

"H-Huuuh? Jotaro? Is that you?" Polnareff said after opening his eyes, his body was not bruised as badly as one would thing, but an experience like that would leave anyone dizzy at the very least, he had his back laying on a tree, with Jotaro crouched down beside him.

"No no, it can't beee, this is aaall just a dream, I just went asleep inside the airplane and i'm having this craaaazy dream..." He said in a way that made him sound drunk, and tried to pinch his cheek, "Huuuh? Wait, Jotaro, pinch me.", Jotaro hesitantly complied, pinching his cheek hard, "O-Ow! Stop that! Okay okay, it's not a dream!", Jotaro sighed, "Good grief, how the hell did you get here, Polnareff?" He asked casually, not expecting a real response. "I don't know! I was in the first airplane to France and then I suddenly woke up in that forest, and those werewolves and giant scorpions attacked me!"

Just then, some figures approached them, Polnareff tried to instinctivly stand up, but couldn't. "W-Who's there?" he asked, trying to sound as menacing as possible. but stopped when he realized they were female figures, one was a small girl in a red dress, one was a white-haired one in a white dress, one was a voluptous blonde with purple eyes and a big smile, and another one was a black haired girl with a ribbon on her head.

All of them also carried weapons. Polnareff face went from smiling to nervous in less than a second "A-aah! Jotaro! We're under attack!", "Jotaro, huh?" The blonde repeated, "You never did tell us your name, not to us two at least" she added, indicating her and the black haired one.

"Wait, you two know eachother?" Both the white haired girl and Polnareff said at the same time.

"Good grief" Jotaro murmured, tipping his hat over his eyes

 [To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: If anyone's asking themselves why i'm only showing "Basic" Grimm instead of the newer Grimms introduced in Volume 3+4, it's because Team RWBY, despite being strong, is not yet experienced enough to handle such bigger threats yet, for example the Beringel in the Vol.4 short was capable of handling an experienced Ruby who was using fully her Semblance.  
> N.2: Jotaro's trademark "Yare Yare Daze" can be seen both as "Good grief" and "Give me a break", in this fic both of those will be used.  
> N.3: Yes, yes, the Nevermore was significantly tougher in the show, but for convinience's sake, let's just say that the one here was an extremely young Nevermore  
> N.4: If you think that the fight scenes here, compared to the ones in JJBA and in RWBY, are pretty bland, then you'd be correct, I have no justification for that other than my poor creativity  
> N.5: If one couldn't tell, the last perspective change goes to Polnareff  
> (Sorry all for the cliffhanger)


	5. New Arrival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a slightly shorter chapter with little-to-no cutscenes, after that titan that was Chapter 4 I don't really feel like writing long fight scenes for now.  
> Thank you all for the 100+ hits!

The four girls and Polnareff stared at eachother for quite a while, untill Ruby started to snicker. "Huh? What's so funy?" Polnareff asked, groggily standing up, after a while her snickering turned into full-on laughter, soon after Yang started to laugh too, Blake was snickering, covering her mouth not to show it, and Weiss tried really hard to not join in.

"A-Are you all poking fun of me?!" He shouted, more confused than angry, Ruby seemed like she was trying to say something, but she was laughing too much for any words to make sense, in fact she was laughing so much she was gripping her hurting stomach, "Can't you guess? It's your horrible fashion sense!" Weiss shouted, and too started to laugh unable to stop herself.

"Okay, that's it!" Polnareff shouted, and before Jotaro could stop him: "SILVER CHARIOT!" He yelled out, something appeared, and it started to rush down towards Weiss, it was similiar to a fully armored knight, wielding a rapier in his hand, it was visibly not trying to swing his sword at her, maybe he was attempting to intimidate her.

However, that did not work, Weiss didn't try to step aside or dodge, in fact, everyone else BUT Weiss jumped out of the way out of instinct, but the determined heiress instead took out her rapier, "W-What?!" Polnareff shouted as Silver Chariot was quickly hit in the chest, creating a small hole in the armor, the hole was quickly reflected back on him, Weiss had a smug smirk on her face, and quickly Chariot backed away.

Jotaro too seemed surprised, those weapons were able to hurt Silver Chariot, normally only Stands can hurt other Stands, but those weapons were obviously breaking that rule, hurting Polnareff's Stand regardless. Suddenly Chariot attempted to attack Weiss again, but Jotaro deftly...smacked the frenchman upside the head, "Stop that, Polnareff" He calmly said, Polnareff looked at him confused, but deactivated his Stand anyway, "W-Why? She stabbed me!" Polnareff asked, and quickly Jotaro replied: "They're not enemies, that should have been obvious"

* * *

_Oh great, another one of these_ Weiss thought to herself, but she couldn't help but smirk, that particular guy's 'Stand' didn't seem particularly strong, and when compared, her skill with a rapier seemed to outmatch his. She couldn't help but think she looked kind of cool there.

"Wait, wait wait wait" Ruby repeated, starting to approach Polnareff and Jotaro, "You two know eachother, right? And you two can use those...Stand things, right?" She asked, first looking at Polnareff and then at Jotaro, Jotaro nodded, "And you both can't remember  how you got here, right?" she then asked, both of them nodded.

Ruby put her hand on her chin and looked down, seemingly thinking, before finally saying "Argh! This is too complicated, let's report this to Professor Ozpin when we get back"

Polnareff probably had a thousand and one questions, but before he could ask any of it, Ruby made a signal to the other girls to follow her, everyone, Weiss included, started to quickly follow her, Jotaro too started to walk.

"H-Hey! Don't leave me here!" Polnareff followed suit, going back into the forest one last time.

The journey back towards the starting point wasn't much to write home about, however while they were walking Jotaro filled Polnareff in on as much information as he could, not that it was much.

"So you're basically saying we're stuck in some sort of different world, with monsters and girls carrying giant weapons?" Polnareff asked as Jotaro finished explaining, but instead of Jotaro answering, Yang, who was walking in front of them, turned her head back and said "Hey, they're not always GIANT weapons" she said, showing off her armored gauntlets, "Details! In any case, this is totally something out of a videogame or a comic book, I can't help but think this is the work of a Stand" Polnareff concluded, "Not possible, I don't sense anything that could be the work of a Stand" This exchange aside, the way back was pretty quick and easy, only taking them about ten minutes for them to reach the starting hill.

Professor Ozpin was looking down at the Emerald Forest from the edge of the hill, in one hand a cane and a mug in the other, he turned around as the last team finally arrived, only with two people that weren't supposed to be there. All of the students looked at them in confusion, Ozpin told them only one team had to arrive, yet there were six people that arrived, not four.

"I say, you all took quite some time in arriving, do you all have the relics?" He asked, and the girls took out their chess pieces, showing it off to the silver-haired professor, Jotaro just stared, while Polnareff looked at everyone half awkward and half confused. Ozpin slowly approached them, taking the pieces off their hands, and with a smile said "Congratulations."

* * *

 

Normally, the entrance ceremony is supposed to be showed to all of the students at Beacons, Team RWBY's case was slightly different, sure, they were called and assembled as an official Team with Ruby as the leader, to much of Weiss's dismay, however it was rushed, like Ozpin, who every year assembles the Teams, was in a hurry to do something else.

And in fact, he was, there were two people he had to meet, the new arrivals, not the new arrivals at this school, but of this world. Ozpin opened the door, and as he entered shut it behind him, the room was very simple, with a table in the center, two chairs on one end of the table, and one chair to another.

Sitting on the chairs were Jotaro Kujo and Jean Pierre Polnareff, Ozpin quickly sat down in the other chair, looking at both of them, "Allow me to formally introduce myself, I'm Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon, Vale's academy for Huntsmen and Huntresses"

"And why are we here again?" Polnareff asked, looking kind of annoyed, to which Ozpin replied, "I know you both aren't of this world, so..I decided to put it upon myself to explain this world to you, is that okay?", none of them disagreed, so Ozpin began to talk.

He told them all about the world, about Grimms and Auras, of Semblances and Kingdoms, of Dust and Faunus. Jotaro at least seemed concentrated on what the headmaster was saying, but Polnareff was obviously quite distracted, and often asked for clarification, it was a very quick explaination, but it still took them about an hour for Ozpin to finally stop.

"Now, I hope I haven't bored you all with this, but I think it's your turn now to at least show me your...Powers." Ozpin concluded, leaning closer to the table. "Wait, wait, how do you know we have powers?" Polnareff asked, to which Ozpin simply said "I've been observing the students over at the Emerald Forest".

"Good grief, can everyone here see our Stands?" He said as Star Platinum appeared beside him, hovering slightly in mid-air, Polnareff too summoned Silver Chariot, Ozpin stood up and carefully observed them, his eyes squinting "Interesting, from what you both told me before coming here, these Stands are projections of one's soul, much like Auras" He slowly approached Star platinum, looking up at it, "That could be the reason why our Stands can be seen, Aura can be channeled in weapons too, explaining why Polnareff's Stand was hurt" He suggested, when he put it that way it definetly seemed probable.

Ozpin sat back down, calmly looking over at the two, "In any case, both seem powerfull, and the Grimm can't seem to be able to see them, so I wanted to ask you both if you wanted to become students in my school, we'll try our hardest to find a way to send you both back home, but how does that sound for the meantime?", as far as they told him, Ozpin know that Jotaro was 17, so he could definetly enter the school if he agreed, but he'd have to bend the rules for Polnareff a little, a 22 years old back in school? That would definetly raise some eyebrows, but after all Ozpin wasn't so above breaking his own rules.

"Why should we accept?" Jotaro enquired, Polnareff nodded, as he was thinking the same thing, "Well, you both could be valuable assets to our school, and we could give you both a room where to stay in the meantime, it won't be something permanent, but the choice is all yours."

The room was covered in silence, Jotaro was looking down, while Polnareff was thinking deeply, and then: "Fine, old man, I accept" Jotaro said, Polnareff joined in too "I accept too! Well, as long as I don't have to be an actual student, that is" he said, Ozpin looked at them both and smiled, "I'm glad you both accept, and Mr.Polnareff, don't worry, I didn't plan on making you a student, unlike Jotaro Kujo here."

* * *

"Urgh, I still can't believe he made YOU the leader" Weiss shouted at Ruby, they were all in their dormitory room, putting the finishing touches on the decorations, due to the high amount of stuff each team member wanted to bring inside the room, they had to improvise. Making the previously four beds into two improvised bunk beds, "Well, she was the one who coordinated us back at the forest" Black calmly said, while putting a particularly heavy book inside the library, "You know, I wonder what happened to those two, Ozpin asked to speak with them in private, and I still haven't seen them yet" Ruby said as she jumped up on one of the top beds, "Those two? They're probably fine, maybe they were just sent back to wherever they came from" Yang replied, that seemed to make sense, but suddenly, someone knocked on the door.

"Who's there?" Ruby asked as she jumped down the bed and walked towards the door, "Hello? I've wanted to ask some informations, I believe i'm lost", it was a male's voice, not one they heard before, Ruby opened up the door, the stranger was tall and was wearing some sort of green school uniform, there seemed to be a scar around each eye, a particularly bad scratch possibly, and had slightly long red hair

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: If you haven't noticed already, this fic really seems very Ruby & Weiss centered, my fault, i'll try to give everyone on Team RWBy their chance to shine here  
> N.2: Who could this stranger possibly be? I have absolutely /NO/ idea.


	6. Under The Shattered Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize that I didn't post anything in the past two days, but even for me it's not known if i'll post on weekends or not.

Day and night, the two most normal things one could think of, be it this world or the next. However, Remnant's night was quite a bit different, the moon that hang above the skies was shattered, an outsider would think it' odd, or even something to worry about, but the people of Remnant never questioned it, it was always something that was there.

And in one of those nights, some figures were walking through the foliage, outside the main town's borders, there were about eight of these figures sneaking inside some foliage, which two of them particularly stood out, one was a redheaded man with a cigar in his mouth and a bowler hat, seemingly quite annoyed at the fact he has to hide as he attempted to not tap his cane on the ground, the other person was a well-built man with a cowboy hat on, a smug smirk on his face, behind them were folling them several masked persons, all of them had some sort of animalistic feature, cat ears, tails, horns, all of them portruding from their uniform.

The well-dressed man, called Roman Torchwick, stopped in his tracks, the man with the cowboy hat soon stopped, and so did the Faunus behind him, "So, let's see what you're made of." He whispered to the hatted man, in front of them there was an open space, and a small building, a warehouse, standing near the back entrance there were two guards armed with heavy looking rifles, one was standing on the right of the door and one of the left.

The hatted man smiled, "My pleasure" he whispered back, he held out his arm forward, but not enough for it to exit the foliage, out of nowhere a gun appeared on his stretched out hand. He pointed the gun in quite a nonchalant way, like he does not care if it hits or not, or maybe he's sure it will hit, he didn't even bother to look at the guard's direction as he pressed the trigger twice in a row.

The two bullets seemed to both be aiming the guard on the left, but as Roman noticed, one bullet unnaturally changed it's trajectory, going towards the right guard at the same speed as the one aiming for the left one, then, in the blink of an eye, the bullets collided against the guards's necks, penetrating their aura and making blood splurt out, the guards didn't even have time to say a word as they both fell to the ground in a pool of blood.

Roman went out of the hiding post and walked towards the back door, as far as he knew, this barely protected Dust warehouse should have only been protected by those guards, so there should have been no problems getting out now, "Nice work, Hole Horse" he said as walked towards the door, the masked Faunus following him, "It's Hol Horse, thanks" Hol Horse said as he approached him, "Yeah yeah, whatever, same thing, good job." Roman said, in quite the condescending tone, "Still, this'll be hard to clean up" He added, looking down at the corpses, "Still, we make a good team." Hol Horse replied with a smug smile on his face.

* * *

The red haired stranger looked down at Ruby for a second, and then looked back to the other members of Team RWBY, "Oh, is this a girls dormitory? I am terribly sorry for intruding then." The stranger said in a gentle tone, the other members peaked at him from beyond the door, confused, "Uh, no no! Nothing to be sorry about, you said you needed information?" Ruby replied. "Oh, yes, I just wanted to know exactly where I am, I just kind of found myself in this hallway without knowing why." the stranger quickly replied, Weiss, who was sitting on her bed and looking at the door, looked down at the floor and brought her palm to her face, she could already guess what was happening.

"Well, you're in Beacon Academy, you know, in Vale." By the way she was saying it, Ruby probably caught up on what was happening too, and as expected he looked quite confused, "Beacon Academy? I could have sworn I was in Dio's Ma-" He stopped himself just in time, and again looked down at Ruby, which was also kind of confused too, he took a breath of relief for whatever reason, "Nevermind, could any of you tell me which is the quickest route back to Cairo?" he asked, and looked at the expression of each girl, it was obvious none of them knew what was happening, Weiss sighed and walked towards the door, "Let me guess, you're one of those 'Stand' guys, huh?" she said an annoyed tone

At the mention of the word 'Stand' the stranger jumped backwards, surprised. "H-How do you know that?" he shouted, and something green was about to appear in front of the stranger, all of Team RWBY had quite the sensation of Deja Vu, and before anything could happen, Ruby jumped in front of the stranger, "W-We mean no harm! My friend is just stressed out! It's been a hard day!" She shouted, a bit embarassed she has to fix Weiss's mistakes. The initial nervousness of the stranger seemed to vanish, and the green being that was about to appear dissapeared just as quickly, but he remained pretty skeptical, "So you're all Stand Users, huh?" he replied, Ruby sighed, here we go again.

The entire team welcomed the stranger in their room, making him sit down on a chair as Ruby began to explain, going back to the Emerald Forest back to now, the stranger smiled and sighed a breath of relief at the mention of Jotaro and Polnareff, "Those two are here, huh?" he said as he looked over at the Team, "Oh, excuse me, I haven't introduced myself yet, my name is Noriaki Kakyoin, please just call me Kakyoin, and those two are my...companions of misfortune, let's put it that way." He said in his usual gentle tone. "Still, you both aren't Stand Users and yet can see them? How odd." He  added, but he didn't seem to be suspicious of them anymore, or at least didn't make it apperent.

* * *

 

One day later Beacon Academy had a pleasant surprise, a special addition to the school was announced, a certain student that goes by the name of Jotaro Kujo, the students that were back at the cliff near Emerald Forest recognized him immediatly, and most of them tried to avoid him, he was definetly different from every student there, he wasn't in any Team, which already was surprising in and of itself, but also was apperent to anyone who bothered researching him that he didn't go to any particular combat school, he had no relatives in Vale or in any other Kingdom, and didn't have his Aura activated. Of course, this was the source of quite a lot of rumors, but also was the source of a sudden popularity with him, in just one day he already had a quite sizable fanclub, to his dismay.

There was also another special addition that day, a new janitor for the school, a quite odd guy with an even odder fashion sense, this beast of a man with silver hair could be seen in the hallways of the school, mopping the floor while muttering something to himself, according to some rumors, this janitor got hand-picked by the Headmaster himself and that he could be often seen talking with Jotaro, but of course those are all rumors.

"Man, this sucks, how come I need to be the weird Janitor while you get to be the chick magnet? It's unfair!" Polnareff whined. He was slumped down on the bed of the provisional room, Jotaro was giving him the shoulders and was sitting near a desk, reading a book that explained the history and usage of Dust, next to the book was a phone-like object that the Headmaster gifted him, a Scroll he said it's called, "Didn't know you had a taste for teenagers, Polnareff." Jotaro coldly replied as he flipped to the next page, to which Polnareff quickly replied: "Hey, they're not ALL seventeen, you know?" Before Jotaro could reply, which he wouldn't have had anyway, someone knocked on the door, strange, only the teachers should have known where they were, Polnareff sat up on the bed, while Jotaro quietly walked towards the door, and opened it, and when he did...

"Hello there Jotaro, I have finally found you", Jotaro couldn't believe his eyes, but no, it was him, it had to be him, "Hmm? What is it, Jotaro? You look like you've seen the dead rise." Kakyoin laughed a bit, Polnareff promptly ran towards the door at full speed, and started pinching at Kakyoin's cheek "Holy shit! It's really you!" Polnareff was grinning like an idiot while Jotaro stood still like a statue, Kakyoin just looked confused as he slapped away Polnareff's hands, "What's so surprising? I mean, except our situation of course" he asked, still confused, "Dude! We thought you di-" before he could finish that sentence, Jotaro elbowed Polnareff in the face, glancing at him angrily, "O-Ow! Okay okay!"

Kakyoin looked at both of them with a raised eyebrow, but didn't enquire further, "In any case, I already met those girls and they explained it all to me, seems you both had quite the adventure without me, huh?" Going monster hunting and everything, this is like something straight out of a game." He said before sitting down on one of the four beds, "I suppose you all have no idea on why we're here, right?", the two shook their head, "Heh, I almost wonder now if Mr.Joestar Abdol and Iggy are here too"

[To Be Continued]-->

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: You may have noticed, but I took some liberty and powered up Emperor, due to it being in JJBA just A Gun it wouldn't be particularly powerfull in the RWBYverse, so I decided to make it powerfull enough to penetrate Aura.  
> N.2: Not much of an eventfull chapter, just some things I wanted to write, next chapters are going to be more eventfull, promised


	7. Burning Star

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a slightly fight-centric Chapter, not much plot, but this is still the calm before the storm.  
> As always, thanks for the surprising amounts of good comments here, it's surprising how much satisfaction i'm getting from my first ever fanfiction!

After a little bit more casual conversation, both Polnareff and Jotaro decided to introduce Kakyoin to Professor Ozpin the same evening, it wasn't that hard to convince him to let Kakyoin stay, actually it wasn't difficult at all. In the morning a new student joined Beacon, which raised lots of eyebrows, yet another team-less, past-less, family-less guy? It was definetly suspicious, despite those suspicions, quite a lot of female students, of every year, seemed enamored of the two newly arrived students, in fact they were both swarmed by students everytime they exited class, this swarm always asked them personal questions, to which Jotaro didn't bother replying, and Kakyoin always said "Sorry, but we can't answer."

In fact, Professor Ozpin asked to not tell anyone that they were from another world, and so far only Team RWBY and most of the Beacon staff knew that. But asking Kakyoin to stay wasn't the only thing they asked for, well actually, only Jotaro asked for this second thing. "You want to spar with another student?" Ozpin repeated, looking at Jotaro through his glasses, Polnareff looked at him quite surprised, "I've seen there's an Arena here, and I want to know what the people here are made of." He simply replied, Ozpin brought his hand to his chin, thinking, "Well, it'd be best if it's someone that already knows your power, so how about someone from Team RWBY? Though a spar seems fairly dangerous, since you can't activate your Aura, are you sure you want to do it?" Ozpin asked, and promptly Jotaro nodded, and so it was decided.

Team RWBY was called to the Ozpin's office two days after Kakyoin was admitted, all of them sat down on the chairs in front of his desk, Ozpin took a sip from his mug as he looked at them, "Do not worry, none of you are in trouble, I just wanted to let you all know that Jotaro Kujo, the man you rescued from Emerald Forest, has asked for one of you to spar with him, I won't force any of you, I just wanted to know if anyone is interested"

At those words, without anyone even having time to reply, Yang brought up her fist to the air, a grin on her face, and everyone's eyes set on her, "Wait, really?!" both Blake and Weiss replied, but Ruby could already guess she would have offered herself, "Why not?" Yang asked, bringing her arm down and still grinning, "I don't care if he's crazy strong, and we gotta train for the Vytal Festival, so why not?", Blake already gave up on trying to convince her of thinking otherwise, and soon did Weiss. "It is decided then, the spar will happen tomorrow evening."

* * *

Jotaro stepped inside the Arena, on the other side of the wide room he could see Yang stretching while she was waiting, the room was usually used by the students to train against eachother, and usually entire classes would watch the fight, this time however only a few people were watching from the seats, Professor Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch, the rest of Team RWBY, and Jotaro's two friends, a wide screen was attached to a high wall, displaying a photo of Yang and Jotaro, along with two bars that determined their Aura, Yang had her bar completely green and full, while Jotaro had it completely empty.

"Kick his butt, Yang!" Ruby stood up and shouted, before Glynda's cold glare made her sit down again, after both Jotaro, Star Platinum to his side, and Yang stood in front of eachother, Glynda stood up and raised her arm, "Begin!" she shouted, and like she's been waiting all day, Yang started to rush at full speed towards Jotaro, and soon a flurry of hits came down at him, to which he instinctively blocked with Star Platinum, the hits bounced off Star Platinum and then went on the offensive, with his usual war cry, Star Platinum unleashed a rush towards Yang, and almost as if mimicking Star Platinum's movements, crossed her arms together and blocked the attacks.

Then, grinning, Yang shot herself upwards, ignoring Star Platinum and trying to go directly for Jotaro, but SP quickly grabbed Yang's leg and with a yell threw her to the ground, the bar on the screen going a bit down. Yang quickly sprung back to her feet like she didn't feel anything, and rushed towards Star Platinum, punching yet again, could it be Jotaro's imagination, or are these hits slightly stronger than the last ones? Just after he thought that, he could feel a sharp pain to his arms and a loud sound, Star Platinum, who was blocking, was hit by one of Yang's bullets, which were shot off just as she threw another punch at him.

_Damn it, seems even the bullets can harm my Stand._ He thought as yet another shot-charged hit went towards him, in an attempt to deviate it Star Platinum punched one of her arms, however a punch, fortunately not bullet-charged, hit SP's undefended gut, making Jotaro reel back from the hit, he had to go on the offensive quickly. His Stand quickly let loose a quick and powerfull punch just as he was hit, Yang didn't even seem to see it as it collided with the side of her face, "Ah!" she exclaimed as her body went flying towards the right, hitting the ground, the screen displayed that her bar was half full, letting out a few gasps from the rest of Team RWBY.  _This is gonna be easier than I thought._  Jotaro thought. but then Yang stood up, and that thought went away.

Yang was still grinning, not only that, but her eyes turned from purple to red in just a second, her hair seemed almost ablaze. She shot the ground to propel herself forward, the speed at she was going almost made her seem like a living bullet, and it was directed towards Jotaro, surprised, he tried to block with Star Platinum. However, it was useless, as Yang''s fists collided with his arms even the durable Star Platinum was affected, there was a loud crack, and Jotaro's arms began to bleed, earning some concerned looks from Polnareff and Kakyoin, however he stood still, calm and collected, Glynda was about to stop the fight before Ozpin looked at her, as if to say  _Let them finish._

Yang standed back up and threw another powerfull punch towards Star Platinum, however suddenly, Star Platinum dissapeared her punch hitting the air, then she could see Jotaro rushing towards her, and with a speed almost equivalent to Star Platinum itself he grabbed Yang's arm, and kicked her legs, trying to sweep her off her feet, not expecting this sudden move, Yang was thrown to the ground, Star Platinum appeared right above her, ready to throw down a rush while she's down, with her free arm punched again and again Jotaro's injured arm, however he would not let up, and then it was too late.

Jotaro was looking at the screen, and then Star Platinum's Rush started to hit Yang, the punches hitting her in the gut or in the chest and leaving quite the crater on the ground, everyone was at awe as Yang's bar quickly went red as it depleted, and then dissapeared completely. Just as it was depleted, Star Platinum stopped his punches, and dissapeared, the one most at awe however was Yang, which depsite her Aura protecting her had quite a few bruises, Glynda raised her arm and shouted "Stop!", not as if Jotaro was going to do anything afterwards.

* * *

_So...Strong!_ Yang thought as she slowly stood up, even with the help of her Semblance, and the fact he did not have an Aura, she was not able to beat him. However she couldn't help but smile, she gained another motivation to get stronger, and for the first time since she started going at Beacon gained a rival, or at least she like that it could be considered that way.

Ozpin sent Jotaro to the infirmary to get his arms healed up, Kakyoin and Polnareff following suit. Ruby approached her as the Team walked out of the Arena, "Don't worry, Yang! You must have just had a bad day!" She said, trying to comfort her, though she didn't exactly need that, in fact she was more motivated than before, she shrugged, her bruises already starting to heal up, "Maybe you're right".

Yang decided to detach from the group and go towards the school's Infirmary, well, more than an Infirmary it was more of a small hospital inside the school, a nurse soon lead her towards Jotaro's room. As she entered the room she could see that Jotaro had his sleeves rolled up, allowing her to see the bandages on both of his arms, he was relaxing down on the bed, talking to both of his friends. Well, it was less "talking" and more listening to whatever they were saying and nodding.

Kakyoin was the first to notice Yang walking in, and promptly said, "Oh, hello there, we, or at least me, didn't expect you to meet you again so soon", after that Jotaro and Polnareff looked back at her, she shrugged and approached Jotaro, "I just wanted toi know if you'd be interested in a rematch, well, not right NOW of course, just later down the line" she said, before adding "Oh, and that you're pretty frickin' tough". After a fair bit of awkward silence, Jotaro replied: "You too, so maybe one day"

Yang grinned and gave him a thumbs up, walking out of the room, Polnareff felt like cracking a joke at the situation, possibly on Jotaro's skills with women, or lack thereof. But Jotaro glared at him like he read his mind.

[To Be Continued]-->

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: I just have noticed that the name of this chapter sounds like a RWBY ship name, move along.


	8. Not-So-Quiet Beacon Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the new chapter, fresh from the stove.  
> Just a warning, don't expect any other chapters the next two days, I need rest!

Joseph waited all day for this phonecall, and finally it came, "Yes? Hello?" He asked as he brought the phone near the side of his face, a young voice replied, "Mr.Joestar? Is that you? I have news", the voice was from one of the Speedwagon Foundation, "It's about the crystal you brought us." the man started, "It does not seem to be a material of this world, neither does it seem to come from space, it also wasn't cut in any way, meaning it's of perfect shape naturally.", Joseph wasn't that surprised at those words, when he picked it up even his prostetich hand could feel an unnatural energy coming from it, "We'll keep you informed if we discover anything" the man finished, and with a "Ah, yes" Joseph hang up, he slumped down on a couch, it's been a few days since Jotaro dissapeared, he also didn't have any news from Polnareff. And even after returning to America he couldn't help but feel worried for his daughter and his grandson.

* * *

 

Jotaro was out of the infirmary the next day, his arms already healed up, Polnareff was adviced to not stay too close to Jotaro and Kakyoin in order to not raise suspicions, which only made him hate his new job even more, Kakyoin was looking down at the Scroll that Professor Ozpin gifted him, "What a piece of technology" Kakyoin marveled as he walked out of the classroom with Jotaro, "I can send calls, send and recieve messages, look at images and videos, and even use it as a key!" He excitedly exclaimed as he pressed the image on the Scroll labeled 'News', the first article, as the both of them saw, was about the great robberies that happened in Vale the past few weeks, warehouses and stores of Dust, big or small, had their Dust stolen from them, and quite a few security guards were found dead.

"Guess there are evil people in any world." Kakyoin concluded as he closed the Scroll, Jotaro nodded, but just as they were walking towards the group's secret dormitory, Jotaro suddenly stopped, Kakyoin stopped too, looking over at his direction, "What is it, Jotaro?" He asked, Jotaro brought his arm near his face, looking at it, strange, he could have sworn he felt a sharp pain on his right arm, he shook his head "It's nothing", and so they kept walking.

The secret dormitory was just out of the school's grounds, it was more or less a cabin hidden by thick foliage, it was kind of difficult and tiring to awlk all the way to the school to the cabin and vice-versa, however the cabin itself had way more space than the regular Team dormitories, they opened the door and stepped inside, as they did, Jotaro could feel an even sharper pain on his right arm, making him instinctively grunt in pain, Kakyoin turned around to look at him again, and Polnareff poked his head out from the kitchen's door, "Yo, Jotaro, you sure you're okay?" Polnareff asked, one could hear the sound of something boiling from the kitchen.

The pain was growing by the minute, it was like a fire was burning inside his arm, "You look pale, Jotaro." Kakyoin made him notice, damn it, how annoying, "Listen, if you all stop commenting on it, we'll all go back to the infirmary and see what it is after we eat, okay?"

And so they did, traversing all the way back towards the school, and entered the white, clean infirmary soon after, due to being the after-school and no-one being cared for, only one nurse was staying there, sitting behind a desk and looking bored, tapping one of her red nails on the desk, she smiled as she saw the group, "Hello there, do you all need something?", Kakyoin approached the desk, "I'm sorry to bother you, miss, but my friend over there feels some rather hefty pain on on his arms, could it be possible to have a check-up?" He said while pointing at Jotaro, the nurse looked at him and stood up, "Not a problem, please follow me" she said as she walked towards one of the rooms.

Jotaro sat down on the bed, the nurse promptly walked his way, the nurse rolled up the right sleeve, exposing....A snake! No, it's not a snake, it's a tattoo of a snake, "Oh my, what's this?" the nurse asked, looking at it, Jotaro and the others were extremely surprised, that wasn't there before. But it was not only that, there were several small holes on his arm, like a snake's bitemark.

However, the nurse didn't seem concerned at all, she nonchalantly walked over to a cabinet, trying to grab something, "Just a sec, you'll just need some bandages and you'll be aaaaall right." she said, Jotaro looked over at the nurse with a raised eyebrow, the others did too, "Wait, that's it?!" Polnareff shouted, even for a quick check up that was way too little, even yesterday they did a whole bunch of annoying tests on him before he was allowed to leave, the nurse turned around to look at them with a non-caring look, "Uuh? You all want to waste time or something? Let me just give him some bandages so you all can leave."

Jotaro suddenly stood up, looking first at the strange tattoo and then at the woman, something was bugging him, "Wait, how did you know I was only hurt in my right arm? Kakyoin only said I was hurt on my arms" He asked before the nurse could reach the cabinated, the woman sighed, and turned around. "Oh screw it,  this farce was getting boring anyway.", to everyone's surprise, she took her white-and-red hat off, revealing a great amount of wildly colored hair, mostly red, but also green, white, blue, just as she did that, Jotaro saw something, the snake tattoo was starting to move!

Then, something appeared beside the woman, something very familiar to the group, a Stand! The female-shaped Stand was black as ink, various tattoos were engraved everywhere on the Stand, animals such as snakes, spiders, wolves, cats and many other, along with a variety of objects, most of them weapons, the Stand had no facial features to speak of, no eyes or mouth, instead three giant holes where any of those should be, "N-No way! A Stand?!" Kakyoin shouted as he instinctively summoned Hierophant Green, Polnareff did the same with his Chariot, Jotaro stood up, looking at the nurse, "Give me a break, other Stand Users?", Star Platinum appeared in front of him, the same moving snake tattoo repeated on SP's right arm.

"Yep! I am indeed a Stand User!" The multi-colored nurse said with a grin on her face, "This Stand is also going to be the one that kills you, isn't that sweet?" she said as she looked towards her Stand, who positioned itself in front of her, however before she could have had any chance to attack, Silver Chariot rushed towards her, rapier in hand, her grin didn't even falter, as both her and her Stand quickly avoided the thrusts, as a response the Stand, quick as an arrow, touched Silver Chariot's shoulder, it was only a little poke, however something appeared where it touched, the tattoo of a dagger thrusted deep into the flesh, Polnareff shouted in pain and grabbed his shoulder as the tattoo was reflected back at him, blood was running down the wound-and-dagger tattoo, meanwhile the snake tattoo was starting to run all over Jotaro's body, it couldn't be seen anymore, but he certainly felt it, deep bites on his body.

"Pfft, easy" The Stand User nurse said with a big grin, "My Stand has the ability to put Tattoos of animals and objects on the bodies of people, and they act like the real thing! Pretty neat, right?" She snickered before starting to talk again, "Oh, and don't even try to take the tattoos off or try to get out of my Stand's range, i'm the only one who can remove them!" She loudly proclaimed, Kakyoin gritted his tetth as he saw Jotaro staying still and Polnareff bleeding, "Emerald Splash!" He shouted, HIerophant Green promptly shot out about half a dozen of green, crystal-like projectiles towards the nurse, she didn't bother to even dodge or block, she stayed completely still with that grin on her face, the projectile collided against her, and despite Kakyoins expectations, the crystals shattered as they collided, not even a scratch on her nurse's suit.

"W-What?!" Kakyoin exclaimed, sure, his Emerald Splash wasn't as strong as Star Platinum's punches, but they should have done something to her! Her grin went even wider, and to the surprise of everyone she suddenly ripped off her nurse's outfit, revealing nothing underneath! Well, nothing except a giant tattoo covering her entire body, the tattoo very much resembled an armor, "Your pathetic Emerald Splash can't hope to penetrate my ink armor!", Polnareff slowly stood up, still holding onto his shoulder, "S-So, I have to only slash your head off, got it!" He shouted as Chariot rushed towards her again, more sluggish than before, she dodged with little effort the slashes and laughed in a mocking way, Kakyoin rushed over to Jotaro, yelling, "Jotaro, help us!"

_Damn it...Can't move, and that damned snake keeps biting me_ Jotaro thought,  _Poison, it has to be poison, and the bites only make it worse, if this keeps up i'll be dead in minutes._ He closed his eyes and tried to feel where the tattoo snake was at the moment,after another sharp pain, he felt it, it came all hte way towards his left arm, he rolled up his sleeve and shouted with his last strenght, "Polnareff! Carve out the snake!". Polnareff was surprised, but rushed over to him anyway, her grin fell down a bit as she realized what they were about to do, and rushed towards them to stop them, but Kakyoin ran as quickly as he could, imposing himself in front of her.

"Emerald Splash!" He shouted again, his Stand shooting out those crystal projectiles once more, again she didn't bother blocking or dodging, the crystals fracturing nigh-instanctly as they went in contact with her armor, "Oh, please" She rolled her eyes, annoyed, and put her open palm towards him, on her palm there was a...Strange hole, realizing what she was about to do, he tried to dodge out of the way, from the hole in her palm a black object was shot out at high speed, grazing Kakyoin's leg slightly.

Polnareff, meanwhile, summoned back to him Silver Chariot, the tattoo snake, who was about to slither away from Jotaro's arm was deftly, and literally, cut off, Silver Chariot's rapier went straight into Jotaro's arm, but not deep enough to stab the muscle, just deep enough to cut away the skin and the tattoo,  the slithering piece of skin fell to the ground in quite the gross way, but at least it gave Jotaro more time.

The woman sighed, "Don't think you've all won yet, far from it" she said as she lifted her open palm towards her, both Polnaref and Jotaro couldn't have had time to move away, and wouldn't have been shot. If it weren't for... _Damn it, do I have to use it again_ "STAR PLATINUM! THE WOLRD!"

Moving in stopped time was already hard enough normally, but now it felt twice as tiring, nevertheless he quickly stood up and walked towards the woman, damn it, he didn't have enough time to hit her enough times to knock her out, instead he punches her arm with enough force to deviate the ink bullet's trajectory.

And so it did, the arm went upwards as the bullet was shot out, the ceiling was perforated by the bullet, it was no doubt as powerfull as a regular one, accidentally timed, Kakyoin, who was near the wall, shouted "Emerald Splash!", the woman, in the blink of an eye, felt the projectiles collide against the side of her face, she was sent flying out of the room from the force of the blow, her body was swift, but one hit was enough to knock her lights out.

[Name: Skye Diam. Stand Name: t.A.T.u. Absolutely knocked out. RETIRED]

The group approached the knocked out woman, "J-Jotaro, what the hell did you do?", Polnareff patted his shoulder "Iiit's a long story, you don't wanna hear it", "Shut it, you two" Jotaro suddenly said, and lifted up Skye's hair, there was something on her forehead.

A fleshbud. "W-What?" Polnareff muttered in surprised as he looked at it, suddenly Skye shifted and muttered something

"I failed you....Lord Dio..."

[To Be Continued]-->

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: You heard it, folks! A new, original Stand!  
> N.2: Yes yes, the body tattoo shouldn't TECHNICALLY cover the genitals, but for the sake of keeping this fic somewhat family friendly let's just say it does  
> N.3: You: "Whaaat? Star Platinum: The World AGAIN?!" Me: "Yes yes, don't worry, I won't use it much from now on, I too feel it's way too easy, but as much as I liked how this original Stand turned out, I didn't want to use it for two chapters"  
> N.4: Altough the Stand User was a native of Remnant she didn't have an Aura, because having an Aura means no Stand, having a Stand means no Aura, it's just a way to balance things out


	9. A Worlds Spanning Destiny

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a (Mostly) calmer, shorter chapter in order for all the main characters to get up-to-date.

"D-Dio?! Did you just say Dio?!" Polnareff shouted in bewilderment, but it was too late, the woman was knocked out for good. As she did, all the tattoos, including the ones on her own body, dissapeared. The poison must also have been part of the Stand as that also seemed to go away. "Incredible, somehow Dio manages to have assasins even here..." Kakyoin stated, almost at a loss for words.

Jotaro muttered "That bastard could be here, actually", but it was impossible, or at least it should be. He himself killed Dio, and the Speedwagon Foundation confirmed his body turned to ash, but then again...He couldn't help but look at Kakyoin for a second, he too should be dead, and both him and Polnareff couldn't bring themselves to say that or that they defeated Dio already, but if he's here with them, then it's equally probable Dio is also here, right?

"T-There's no time to marvel, Jotaro! Quick, remove that fleshbud!" Polnareff shouted, Jotaro nodded, looking back at the naked Stand User's forehead, that little fleshbud was made out of Dio's cells, no doubt. Star Platinum appeared right next to Jotaro, and grabbed the bud between two fingers, already the bud writhed and moved, but started to squirm more and more as Star Platinum carefully pulled it out, Jotaro looked at Polnareff, and as if reading his thoughts, Polnareff nodded. Star Platinum, with an "ORA!" threw the fleshbud towards Polnareff, Silver Chariot quickly appeared in front of him, and swiftly skewered the fleshbud, the thing started to wrap its tentacles around the rapier, but Silver Chairiot quickly pointed the sword in front of a window, and though it was dusk and the sun was slowly setting down, the bud slowly stopped moving as it was roasted by the sun's rays, and then quickly dissapeared.

Polnareff took a breath of relief, "Hope I don't have to do that again..." He murmurs to himself, Kakyoin looked over at the two, and proclaimed "We should probably talk about this to the Headmaster, we don't want a misunderstanding, after all", but just as luck would have it, the moment he finished that phrase someone came in.

* * *

Jaune Arc got himself wounded during training, again. It was nothing serious, just a few bruises and scratches that just refused to heal quickly, but his Team suggested him to go to the infirmary anyway to at least get some band-aids, but of course, he just went in at the worst time.

As he opened the door and took a step in, he saw the two new students, one of which he already seen, and the janitor, which he also saw at the Emerald Forest, all of them bloodied up and battered, and next to them what looked like an unconcious naked woman with wildly colored hair. As one would might expect, he freaked out.

"W-What happened?! Did you all do this?! O-Oh! I'm sorry! I swear I won't tell it to anyone! Please just don't-" He started to shout words like a talking machinegun, Jotaro didn't seem all that fazed, and was walking over towards another room, the one they've been in, but both Polnareff and Kakyoin were pretty embarassed and mumbled as they tried to explain the situation.

Long story short, Jaune almost passed out and had to be carried to his dorm, hoping he won't remember anything, Jotaro covered the nurse up with her clothes as she was brought away to heal, and the three went to the principal's office after getting patched up.

"Dio...Is that his name?" Ozpin repeated, leaning over his desk with an intrigued look on his face, Jotaro nodded, "So you are all saying he's the one that gave that nurse that...Power, right?" They all nodded, almost in unison, "There's no doubts about it, that bastard was controlling her with his cells too!" Polnareff shouted angrily, but after taking a deep breath or two, he got his temper in control, "A dangerous sounding person indeed, i'll try to do some research and see if my...Informants can find anything about him, if he's been brought here like all of you were, we will no doubt find him" Ozpin proclaimed, his voice calm, before a bit of silence he suddenly asked "Oh, and do you want Team RWBY to know about this?". The three looked at eachother's expression, after a bit of hesitation, Jotaro answered, "Might as well, it'd be annoying if we had to repeat ourselves"

* * *

A few days passed since the incident happened, of course, no-one expcept the staff, the Stand Users, Team RWBY, and vaguely Jaune Arc knew about what happened that day. Both Team RWBY and the teamless Stand Users, excluding Polnareff, often shared classrooms due to being first-years, but the Stand Users were always excluded from active training in the Arena, due to them "Not having a full team", but because they shared classroom, they often talked to eachother after class, while Polnareff worked.

"So this Dio guy's been haunting your family for generations?" She asked as she took a sip of milk, they were all currently in the cafeteria, it was currently empty, so it was a nice place where to chat after the day was over, all of them had their eyes fixed on Jotaro, wanting to know more, "How can he even be alive for that long?", Jotaro and the others have been hesitant to call Dio on what he really was: A vampire, due to them not knowing what their reaction would be "He...Has his methods, let's leave it at that" Polnareff said while mopping the floor near their table, "I don't think there's any method for one to live that long. Plus, how is he able to control people like that?" Blake asked, she took quite an interest to what little she knew about the world they came from, a world without Grimm, that almost seems ridicolous to think of.

"He's not human, anymore, that is." Kakyoin quickly explained, Weiss didn't bother listening, or at least faked not being interested, solely concentrating eating what she brought, "Not human, huh" Blake repeated, and Jotaro noticed her looking down for a second, "And he has a lot of powerfull assasins, all of which we already took care of, or at least we thought we did" Kakyoin looked down, "He's somehow able to create other Stand Users, even here..."

* * *

The sounds of footseps reverbed across the room as the figure went inside, no, it didn't enter, it stayeed in the hallway, one step from entering. "You can enter, you know. There's no sunlight where we are now" The woman that sat down at the end of the table said in a calm tone. the figure walked forward, and bathed in the moonlight, everyone could see him, his body was huge, it was even more evident due to the fact he was completely shirtless, his blond hair was wild, almost reaching his shoulders, however, his body had a huge scar goind from the tip of the forehead going down, presumably to the groin. The woman smiled, her body was unnatural, extremely pale with white hair, her eyes were red irises and black sclera, purple veins near both of the eyes, "Welcome, Dio Brando"

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Less perspective changes now, as you might have noticed, the horizontal lines now signify more of a "Scene cut" kind of symbol  
> N.2: A fair warning, RWBY is a still developing series which has much more space for development and added insight, just be aware, if you're reading this after 2016 for some reason, that this was written when Volume 4 barely started out, there might (Or will) be things that could contradict information showed later in the series, such as if the region where Salem stays actually has sunlight or not.  
> Edit: Noticed I didn't add the To Be Continued, fixed.


	10. A Nice Stroll In The City

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this chapter being late, but the website going down kinda prevented me from writing and publishing

Days after the incident were pretty stressfull for the Stand Users, Dio's assasins could have been anywhere and could attack at any moment even inside the Academy, it was natural they'd be pretty paranoid. However, about a week passed, and no similiar incident occured, but something possibly even worse happened.

"Sorry guys, but we're out of food..." Polnareff grimly announced, since the first days he's been the one who always cooked dinner for them. Okay, it was not actually that bad of a thing, lunch was always served in the cafeteria and they could always buy snacks there. However all of them felt pretty tired, especially Jotaro, using Star Platinum: The World two times in such a short amount of time left him drainedof energy, and though he hated to admit it Polnareff's cooking was just the thing to fill himself up.

"I don't see the problem, just go buy some at the town" Kakyoin answered, laying on his bed, Polnareff almost seemed insulted at that, "H-How am I supposed to do that?! I know nothing of the town! What if I get atta-" Polnareff was interrupted by Jotaro, "Then why don't you ask one of those Team RWBY girls to escort you?" Jotaro calmly asked, while reading a book called "The Complete Encyclopedia Of Remnant's Marine Life: Grimm Free!". "Huh, haven't thought of that, it could be an opportunity..." Polnareff replied with a sly smirk, to which Kakyoin immediatly responded with "I wouldn't suggest hitting on any of them, Polnareff" as if reading his thoughts, immediatly his smirk went down. "Fine fine, i'll go..."

As he walked through the hallway Polnareff was noticed by a quite a few students, most of them ignored him, some laughed under their breath as they walked past him, and some others questioned one another why a janitor was inside a student's dormitory. Polnareff sighed as he stopped in front of the door of Team RWBY, and knocked.

* * *

"Of course!" Ruby's answer echoed inside the room, Weiss looked at Ruby with an expression that was clearly irritated that she answered without taking in consideration her teammates opinion, or better put, her opinion. Weiss first looked at Polnareff, then at Blake and Yang, seeing that neither of her teammates were against it, she slumped her shoulders and sighed, giving up,  "But...Do you really wanna go out with that on?" Ruby asked as she pointed at his baggy black shirt. "Huh? What's so bad about it?" He geniuenly asked as he looked down, Weiss muttered at Ruby "Don't even try, this guy has no sense of fashion".

After a little while, the five walked out of the Academy's walls, and into the city, the whole city itself was not that huge compared to capital cities of Earth, however it was big enough for a person to get lost in it, and even though they were only supposed to go at the grocery shop Ruby also took it upon herself to act like a tourist guide for Polnareff.

"Oh! And there's a nice little coffee shop where you can hang out with friends! The coffee is gross, though." She said as she pointed towards a small outdoor cafe, which was currently empty, as they walked down the street Ruby continued to point at shop and at specific points and explain, like a very opinionated guide, fortunately Blake approached Polnareff and distracted him, "So, where exactly do you come from? Your friends Jotaro and Kakyoin both say to come from 'Japan', what about you?" she aksed with a curious looked on her face, Polnareff face seemed to almost light up and proudly proclaimed "I come from the nation of France! Land of poets and artists, of romance and honor!". He may have just exaggerated, however Blake seemed to believe it. "Heh, seems like a great place"

But suddenly, Ruby stopped, "Hmm? Did we arrive?" Polnareff asked as he took a look around, but there were no shops in the area at all, "What's the matter, sis?" Yang asked as she approached Ruby, Ruby took a look around the area, "Wait, didn't we see that coffee shop before?" She asked and then looked up, the sky was darkening and the sun was slowly setting, but they've only been out for a few minutes!

* * *

"Hey, Kakyoin" Jotaro called out, both of the young Stand Users were walking in the almost empty school grounds,

Kakyoin turned his head towards Jotaro, "Yes?"

"Polnareff's been out for a while" He said, stopping in his tracks

Kakyoin shrugged, "It could be that the shop is far away, or they got in some sort of problem"

Jotaro then got his Scroll out of one of his school uniform's inner pockets, "Better to call him and be sure", he dialed Polnareff's Scroll number, but the Scroll up to his hear...And no one responded. Jotaro didn't say anything more as he started to dial the numbers of each RWBY girl, and every last one didn't respond, "Give me a break, what happened to them now?"

* * *

Ruby whined as she kept walking, her shoulders slumped, "Uurgh...Why are we not there yet? Why are the shops repeating themselves...?", everyone in the Team, including Polnareff, felt incredibly tired, but why? Why were the streets repeating themselves? Why was the sun setting already? "This...Must be the work of an enemy Stand!" Polnareff shouted, the girls turned their heads towards him, "It's the only possible explaination!" Polnareff continued, but before he could say any further, a growl could be heard, he turned to look at where the sound was originating, which turned out to be...Blake? "H-Heh" Blake laughed half-heartledly as she touched her stomach with an embarassed look on her face.

Now that he thought about it, he too felt pretty damn hungry, and by the expressions of everyone, they did too, "H-Hey, let's go to the coffee shop! They have these cute little cakes there!" She cheerfully said, already heading there, but it was pretty obvious she was getting kind of nervous like everoyne else, not left with much of a choice, everyone else followed her towards it.

As they sat down, another person sat at the table near them, and promptly a young waiter walked towards them...And ignored them entirely, walking over to the single man beside them, taking his order instead, "Hey! Over here!" Polnareff shouted, but neither the waiter or the man even seemed to notice him, "HEEEEEEEEY!" He shouted even louder, making Ruby, who was sitting next to him, cover her ears, but the two still didn't notice them, "W-What a horrible service!" He exclaimed, and he was a out to stand up before Ruby stopped him, "Wait! Something's wrong", she said, Weiss raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, "You think?" she said, but Ruby ignored her, "Maybe you're right, this must be the work of an enemy Stand, or something similiar."

At that, Ruby stood up and walked over to the waiter, and poked him...Except her entire arm went through the waiter's torso, almost like the waiter was a projection, the rest of Team RWBY gasped as this happened, Polnareff stood up, "We need to find the enemy Stand! It can't be far away from here!"

[To Be Continued]-->

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Wow, writing some simple slice of life scenes is so much harder than writing an action scene.  
> N.2: As you can see, i'm testing a new 'Back-And-Forth' dialogue, i'll see if I will use it in later chapters, yes, the big spaces bother me too, but can't do anything about that.  
> N.3 As you can see, this is the start of the first of the (Hopefully) many arcs this fanfic will have to offer.


	11. One More Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, almost 300 Hits, that's...Pretty amazing to be honest, though I do wonder how many of you are enjoying this.  
> In any case, new (Late) chapter!

The group decided to continue walking down the street again, this time paying more attention to where they were walking, they passed by the cafe, an abandoned Dust shop, a few houses, a bookstore and a clock shop...And then they were back again at the cafe, everyone couldn't help but groan as they walked by the cafe once more, "Damn it! Where the hell is the user?!" Polnareff shouted in frustration, Blake slowly raised her hand to bring attention to her, "Maybe we shouldn't go that way?" She simply suggested.

And so they did, they went past the dust shop and the bookstore, and then turned towards a small alley, it was going well for a little while untill Ruby turned her head upwards, everyone did the same soon after, they heard...Something, something that sounded like a mechanical sound coming from above, and then they realized. "It's coming from that weird clock!" Ruby exclaimed, pointing at the big clock attached to the wall of the alley, it was very odd to see something like that in a mostly empty alley, but what was even more odd was that the clock had a pair of eyes seemingly drawn on the glass, looking directly at them. Ruby, curious, got closer to the clock, but then Polnareff, who was in the far back, heard the sound of footsteps, and promptly turned around, "Who's there?!"

It lasted only for a second, but he saw it, he saw another big clock, bigger than his head, and a figure holding it, and in the blink of an eye it was gone. "Again?!" Weiss shouted, and Polnareff turned around, there it was, the cafe, everyone had their shoulders slumped, and Yang was starting to get a little bir angry, her eyes reddening a bit, "Damn it!" She shouted loudly, and tried to kick away an empty can on the ground out of anger...Only for her foot to phase right through it, resulting her in getting more angry, "W-We can't even touch objects now..." Blake said, and suddenly Polnareff intervened, "I think I saw the user!" He announced, and all eyes were on him, "The Stand...It must be that clock we saw!"

"Oh well, seems i've been found it." A low and monothone voice, like a machine's, suddenly said. The group turned around to look at the source of the voice, and there it was, standing on the roof of a small building a man clad in black and red clothes, a pair of black horns sprouting from his head, it was easily recognizable as a Faunus, but it was even more recognizable due to the red-and-white mask he was wearing on his face, covering it. "I-Is that a-" Blake started, before getting interrupted by Weiss, "It's a member of the White Fang!"

"Indeed I am" The man said, and suddenly something appeared in front of him as he jumped down, it's one of those clocks! Instinctively Polnareff unleashed Silver Chariot and started to run towards him, as he got closer he noticed, he was not standing on the ground, but on another clock! But why? He couldn't even begin to formulate an answer as the man grabbed the clock and pointed it towards Polnareff, the clock started to go backwards by a few seconds, and in the blink of an eye he was back where he was a few seconds before, "So it was you!" He shouted, a bit disoriented.

"Indeed, my Stand, "One More Time", can move people back to where they were at a certain moment in time" He explained, "That's...Pretty lame, honestly" Yang couldn't help but mutter as she piped down a little, "Oh, but that is not all. Every time a person is sent back, they become slowly disconnected with reality." The man slowly and coldly said. "W-What does that even mean, asshole?!" Polnareff shouted, and then it all clicked, first they couldn't  interact with people, then they couldn't interact with objects, and then what?

He was standing still doing nothing, it was almost like he wanted them to attack him, and they promptly satisfied him. Though weaponless Team RWBY promptly rushed towards him, the Faunus held the clock almost like a shield, the eyes of it pointed straight to the Team "Bad idea, One More Time" he said, Polnareff didn't have time to turn around and stop them as they dissapeared in the blink of an eye, leaving him alone with the enemy. "W-What?!" he couldn't help abut shout, they should have only gone where they were a few seconds before!

The masked Faunus jumped up with extreme agility with his Stand in hand, the clock he was standing on disappeared just after he did so. Instinctively Polnareff jumped backwards as if to avoid an incoming attack, but the Faunus stopped in mid-air a few meters from him, standing on top of a hovering clock that just appeared, "Silver Chariot!" He shouted, and promptly Chariot advanced towards the hovering Faunus.

As soon as the Rapier got close to him, he simply and coldly muttered "One More Time.", and with the usual mechanical sound of the clock rewinding Chariot was pushed back once more, "D-Damn it, at least attack me, bastard!" Polnareff angrily shouted, to which the man replied with "Can't you see? You're already under my effect"  
And promptly, Polnareff started to sink into the street's ground like it was quicksand.  
"W-WHAT!?"

[To Be Continued]-->

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: This might be the worst chapter yet, in my honest opinion, but it had to be done.  
> N.2: Would you people be interested in a sort of Stand Compendium when/if this Fic'll be done? In order to give more details on the original Stands  
> N.3: Yes, yes, cliffhanger, I know


	12. One More Time Pt.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm, from this week onwards, going to use a new schedule, instead of a chapter every two days expect one each three days.  
> Sorry to give this news, but hopefully chapters from here onwards will be more substantial.  
> Also, i'm surprised I didn't get any reviews or comments as of late, be it positive or negative.  
> EDIT: Plan's changed, the new chapters will go up every Friday.

Polnareff's feet had already sinked inside the ground, and soon he was almost knee deep inside the ground, "A-Aaaaah!" He screamed out, trying to futily stand up, and as his hands touched the ground they were became stuck inside the ground, "What is happening?!" He shouted, the Faunus looked over at him, or at least that's how it seemed like, hard to say with that mask vocering his face, "Your body is, like mine, is now completely disconnected in reality, you'll soon suffocate and then die inside the ground", the Faunus's mechanical voice rang out in Polnareff's ears, which in panic made Silver Chariot grab him by the shoulder and trying to pull him out, it worked ...Kind of, not really, it just slowed down his descent.

"Help! Someone help me!" Polnareff shoute, it was night, so of course not a lot of people would be out at this time of the day, but as Polnareff looked around he noticed that there were actually a few people onn the street, some walking down on it or sitting at the cafe and talking calmly with the people near them, completely ignoring, or more probably not seeing, the man sinking inside the ground and the Faunus standing on a clock suspended in mid air, with another clock in hand. "It's useless trying to move, you'll sink down eventually" The Faunus coldly said as he turned his head up the street, he looked like he was...Waiting.

And indeed he was. From up the street it could be seen, for the people that could, Team RWBY, still weaponless, quickly descending the street and rushing quite angrily, "You're gonna get it now!" Ruy shouted with an anger unusual for her normal self, the Stand must have really annoyed her, her movements became a blur as she activated her Semblance, she didn't even notice Polnareff as she propelled herself off the ground, and shot herself towards the Faunus like a red bullet.  
"No! STOP!" Polnareff shouted, but it was too late once again.

The Faunus held the clock over his face, and as the clock turned back Ruby lost all momentum, and suddenly found herself behind the enemy and fell on the ground, she gritted her teeth in silent fury as she tried to stand up.  _If only I had Crescent Rose with me_ , she thought. Blake and Yang looked at eachother and nodded as if reading eachother's thoughts, both started to go even faster and as soon as they got near the Stand's range the split up, one going to the left and one going to the right.

Weiss seeemed to be the only one that actually noticed poor Polnareff sinking, only held up by his own Stand, "U-Uh, I would like some damn help!" He shouted, both of his legs under the ground, Weiss at first looked quite confused, but surprisingly rushed towards Polnareff to help him out, grabbing him by the arm and trying to pull him out, but it was utterly useless, "What happened?!" She yelled out at him, and in panic Polnareff screamed  "DON'T GET TOO CLOSE! We can't fight him!"

* * *

The Faunus did not move at all as the two girls rushed towards both of his sides, "I am getting tired of this" He said, and without even bothering to look at them two floating clocks appeared to each side, brought his hands on both, and when they were right in front of the clock's eyes and were about to jump on him he lightly tapped the two clocks. and they were soon set back, but not at all far, he tapped the clock again and again, and with loud mechanical sounds both Blake and Yang were sent slightly further and further each time, "H-Huh?" Blake couldn't help but exclaim as her shoulder went in contact with a wall, and her eyes widened when she saw that her shoulder was sinking inside it, the continous rewinding also made Yang quite dizzy, which made her fall on her behind, her body starting to sink too. Ruby was just in time to turn around and look at the scene, and finally noticing Polnareff, her eyes went wide in shock, how come her Team was able to take out an horde of monsters, and not a single person?

And just then, an idea came to mind, and without even thinking twice about it she activated her Semblance again, the Faunus quickly grabbed the clock and turned around, but not quite in time. Ruby started to quickly circle around the Faunus, making her incredibly difficult to track down, and then as she continued to circle large amounts of  dust started to gather, like a dusty tornado, making her even less visible. "Interesting" The Faunus said, and as he turned his head to look at the faint blur of Ruby passing by, but he didn't seem to be particularly bothered.

And one could see the reason of this confidence, clocks appeared all around him, forming a wall of clocks, everyone's eyes went wide as it happened, how many damn clocks can this guy make?  
He started to randomly tap the backs of the hovering clocks, but it all failed, "It seems One More Time isn't able to see through the dust, well played" He simply and coldly stated.  After that Ruby stopped circling around him, and like a giant bullet headed towards the Faunus, her silhouette appeared right in front of him, and before he could do anything, both of her feet collided against his face, she wasn't particularly strong without her weapon, but the hit was strong enough to crack the mask and propel him backwards, his back hitting one of his clocks, making it shatter to dust. "U-Ugh.." He slowly muttered as his back hit the ground, and started to sink into the ground too, "I got to...Deactivate One More Time"

And just like that in the blink of an eye, everyone found themselves unstuck from the ground and walls, and just like that all heads of various passerby, and were rendered subjects of their whispering. Or shouting.  
"Where did those people come from...?"  
"I-Is that a White Fang member?! I'm calling the police!"  
"What's up with that guy's hair?"

"Well, this is a problem" The Faunus stated, still on the ground, and for the first time with a tint of sarcasm in his voice

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Argh, sorry for the low quality chapters, but hopefully the weekend will refresh me and the quality will go up a bit.  
> N.2: I promise I will go back to earlier chapters, including this one, and clean them up a bit grammar-wise, be patient


	13. Stray Once More

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there it is, new chapter! Sorry if it's not particularly longer than the usual chapters, but I think it ended on a decent point.

The Faunus was laying with his masked face on the ground and a proud Ruby standing on top of him,  
striking a theathrical pose, like a knight standing on top of a slayed dragon. Blake and Yang leaned  
against the nearest walls looking pale, "Who knew being stuck inside a wall could have side effects?"  
Blake sarcastically asked, gripping her head.

However the one that had it worse was Polnareff, who was looking extremely pale and stumbling around,  
moving towards the grounded masked man, "Uuugh...I'm gonna....Kill you!" He suddenly shouted and,  
without even noticing that people were watching him, summoned his Stand and it quickly rushed towards  
the Faunus. Ruby, wide eyed due to the surprising aggressiveness, stepped aside, at the same time the  
Faunus made an attempt to stand up, but as soon as he went on his feet the rapier penetrated his side,  
"What are you doing?!" everyone, including the civilians, shouted in choir.

But it was too late, after one stab were another, and another, Silver Chariot's rapier thrusted inside  
the man's torso again and again. But maybe due to the nausea, or maybe because he didn't have actual  
killing intent, didn't hit any vital organs. After a dozen or so thrusts the man fell on the ground  
passed out, his body filled with small holes and covered in his blood, mask cracked enough to slightly  
see the bronzed skin under it.  
A few civilians screamed at the sight and only now Polnareff noticed theywere watching him. "U-Uh, he  
attacked first!" He tried to explain, but as he turned around he noticed someone was walking towards  
him, even if it was another world the two men, wearing a uniform with a distinct badge, walking towards  
him were easily recognizable as police officers.

* * *

For obvious enough reasons, he got in quite a bit of trouble, he was excorted towards a police station.  
While the unconcious Stand User was brought to the hospital. Fortunately, as they just were about to  
interrogate Polnareff, a police officer entered the small interrogation room and said: "You're a lucky  
man, the Headmaster of Beacon himself ordered your release, wouldn't know why."  
Polnareff took a sigh of relief, that headmaster guy sure has quite the influence. As he exited the  
police station he was greeted by two familiar faces, "Kakyoin! Jotaro!" He exclaimed happily, not  
noticing the bags under their eyes, not that he was in a better state himself, "We've been searching  
all night for you, now I expect you to explain just what happened" Kakyoin stated.

* * *

"This...Is the worst!" Yang exclaimed as she dropped on the bed, "Yeah, we didn't even get the  
groceries at the end..." Ruby replied with a saddened tone, as if not getting the groceries for a  
friendly acquintance was the worst thing that happened that day, Weiss was still muttering on what a  
bad idea it was, "Hey, at least we managed to get Polnareff out of trouble with the police!" Ruby  
exclaimed.  
The only one that remained in complete silence was Blake, laying on her bed on her side, she was  
thinking on how incredibly bizzare those powers were, and how even a seemingly weak Stand was able to  
annoy them quite a lot, and the fact that the one who attacked them was a White Fang member, could  
they, by any chance, be working with that Dio? She couldn't come up with an answer before drifting off  
to sleep.

A day had passed, and both Team RWBY and the Stand Users, who were gathered right outside of the gates  
of the school, were surrounding Jotaro, who was holding a photo in his hand. It showed a bronze-skinned  
Faunus laying on an hospital bed, a name scrawled on one of the edges, 'Titani'. "So this is the Stand  
User?" Kakyoin asked, leaning closer, Ruby and Polnareff nodded, both recognizing the horns and what  
little they saw of his face, "No fleshbud, he acted on his own will" Kakyoin added. Blake was staying a  
bit detached from the group, thinking, Weiss turned towards her and called out to her, but she didn't  
respond.  
"Not that it's very surprising, he is a White Fang member, after all" Weiss added, looking back at the  
group, Jotaro noticed, as soon as she uttered those words, Blake turning around angrily. "So...Who are  
these 'White Fang' guys?" Polnareff asked, Weiss frowned at that question, like she was forced to  
remember something terrible "Just a bunch of disgusting Faunus criminals" She simply answered. "That  
isn't true!" Blake, looking at Weiss with a clearly angry look on her face "They're not criminals!  
They're just...misguided!" She yelled, everyone turned to look at her, surprised of such sudden  
ferocity. "Oh, are they now? What about all the other attacks made by the White Fang? I bet they're  
responsible for the mass Dust theft too!" Weiss crossed her arms as she answered, looking at Blake with  
an icy look.  
The situation was getting quite awkward, Polnareff whispered a low "Oh-oh, catfight" and slowly backed  
away as Blake stomped towards Weiss, "It's because people like YOU treat them this way!"  
"Oh really? How should I treat them then? Give them a biscuit and say 'Good boy'?"  
"See?! It's those types of attitudes that leads to violence!"  
"You have absolutely no idea on what you're talking about!"  
And so on, and so forth, they continued to argue quite viciously, some students were walking in and out of the gates, looking at them weirdly as  
they passed by, ultimately after quite a lot of arguing, Weiss shouted "Why do you even sympathize with  
them?!" And then, in a fit of anger Blake shouted so loud everyone in the vicinity could hear her:  
"BECAUSE I'M ONE OF THEM!"  
A few moments of silence passed, everyone looking at her surprised, and just then Blake realized what  
she just said, her angry expression dropped immediatly, her eyes widening, and then she seemed to stop  
moving "W-What did you just say?" Weiss asked getting close, but suddenly the image of Blake  
dissapeared into shadows.

Blake already had ran away

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Get it? Titani? Like Titanuim White? I like to think i'm clever  
> N.2: Of course I couldn't just skip the whole Blake-Is-A-Faunus deal, as that is a big turn in both Blake's and Weiss's personality and character development, so here's my version of it.  
> N.3: The formatting in general of the chapter is a bit different than normal, I know, but it's because I used an external program this time. So the paragraphs don't span the entire page, and instead only half


	14. Some Things Just Don't Change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, the new chapter! This is a more RWBY-Centric, calmer chapter.  
> Also, happy anticipated new year. Also I can't believe I forgot last week to say how Great the Part 4 ending was!

Blake ran on instinct, without looking back, into the city. After an large amount of time, having set  
her distance between her and Beacon, she took a sigh of relief, and leaned against the wall of a  
building, taking a few deep breaths. How could she have been so careless? Not only she admitted to  
being a Faunus, she also, worst of all, admitted she was a White Fang member, how was she going to fix  
this? Could she fix this?

As these questions rampaged through her mind she felt a breeze passing through, a blond man, easily  
recognizable as a Faunus due to the monkey tail, passed by her while being followed by multiple police  
officers that were shouting at him to stop, and winked at her! What was his deal? She blinked twice,  
and looked down at the street he ran off too with a bewildered look on her face, but he, along with the  
police officers, was already out of sight

* * *

"Hey hey, shouldn't we go help them find Blake?" Polnareff asked, putting a plate of french toasts on  
the table... Or something resembling them, it was obvious Polnareff did them with a lack of the usual  
ingredientsm and usual toasts. It was already the morning after Blake had ran away "We already tried  
our best yesterday, even with Hierophant Green I was unable to identify Blake anywhere inside Vale, and  
it's her Team's duty to find her, we should only try to find a way out of this wo-" Kakyoin was  
abruptly interrupted by Jotaro, "No, we have to remain here." He stated firmly, Polnareff and Kakyoin  
gave him a confused look, "Why's that, Jotaro?" Polnareff asked, before taking a bite out of a french  
toast, "Dio's here, I can feel it, he's far away, but he's here. The assasins we met are proof of that,  
he's our responsability"  
"So you're saying we should go hunt him down aga-" Polnareff looked at Kakyoin, and quickly corrected  
himself "Keep hunting him even in this new world?" Jotaro nodded, "But we still have no idea where he  
is, so for now we're going to stay here, and keep fending off his assasins."

* * *

  
"Blaaake? Blaaaake!" Ruby cupped her hands in front of her mouth, trying to amplify her voice, "It  
didn't work yesterday, it won't work now" Weiss was quick to reply, "Why don't you actually try to  
help?" Yang said with an annoyed tone, looking back at Weiss as the three kept walking, Weiss frowned  
and seemed she was going to say something, before Yang, who was in the front, stumbled into something  
and almost fell down. No, not something, but someone, "W-What..?" Yang looked down, and there she was,  
a young girl with orange hair and green eyes was laying on the ground and smiling, "Salutations!"

The three girls looked at eachother in confusion, not knowing how to respond, "U-Uh...Hello there?" In  
the end, Ruby was the first one to talk, and with a sudden, almost unnatural, jump and a front-flip the  
girl went back on her feet, "My name is Penny Polendina, but you can just call me Penny!" Her voice was  
cheerful, but there was something bizzare about it, the three girls couldn't quite understand what it  
was. The three promptly introduced themselves to Penny, and then, quite awkwardly, tried to slip by  
her, "Well, see you later, we're trying to find our friend!" Ruby said as she looked back at her, but  
Penny walked over to them, "Friend? You said 'Friend', right?" She asked with an inquisitive look on  
her face.

Meanwhile, Blake was hiding in plain sight, sitting at the furthest table of a cafe, "I knew it, from  
the first time I saw you I just knew you were a Faunus!" And she had company, Sun, the monkey Faunus  
she met yesterday, was sitting on the chair in front of her, "And how exactly did you know that?" She  
asked, "I have a sharp eye, you know? After I winked at you, your big bow twitched a little" He  
explained, a playfull grin on his face.

"So was that the reason why you winked at me? Just to see if I was, indeed, a Faunus?" She asked, she  
was still very down from the mistake of the other day, but at least this way she felt a bit better, Sun  
simply shrugged at the question, tail swishing from side to side "I could have, who knows?" He replied.  
After some awkward silence, Blake decided to ask a question that could have only made the situation  
worse, "Hey...What do you think of the White Fang?" She asked, looking around to make sure nobody was  
listening in, despite the question Sun remained calm "A bunch of Faunus jerks that think what they're  
doing makes the situation better for us" Blake looked down as he replied, and slowly leaned against the  
table and whispered, to make sure the patrons around didn't hear her. "What if...I told you I'm one of  
them?"

Sun remained wide-mouthed at that, almost letting his cup fall to the ground before his tail quickly  
grabbed it, "I-Uh...Well..." He mumbled and stumbled on his words, not knowing how to reply, Blake  
sighed, expecting such a reaction "Did you know that the White Fang wasn't always like that?" Blake  
asked, "U-Uh, ahem, what do you mean?" He simply asked, regaining his composure. Blake took a deep  
breath and started explaining, explaining that the White Fang was, time ago, a peacefull organization  
dedicated to fighting for the rights of Faunus, and how she was always, as a child, at the front lines  
of protests, and how after the previous leader stepped down a new, more radical and violent one took  
control of the White Fang

"...And that's why I left, I could no longer stand their violent ways, and decided to become a Huntress  
instead." She concluded, taking another deep breath. Sun had, again, his mouth agape in, but not from  
surprise this time, he coughed once, and started to talk "Wow, I...Never knew that, always thought they were just a bunch of freaks" He simply said, Blake sighed once more, she couldn't help now but feel that he, in some way, was right, "There are rumors saying that the White Fang is involved in the Dust theft, could that be true?" Blake said, more to herself than at him. But he suddenly said "Only one way to find out!" And stood up.

"Mm, your friend's name is Blake, right?" Penny asked, looking at the other three, "Yep! Kinda tall, black hair, dresses in black, cute black bow on her head..." Ruby started to list off her characteristics, "Hmm, yes, I think I saw someone like that" She said, seemingly staring off into space, "Really?!" Ruby said, walking towards her, "Where?"At that question, Penny started to point...Somewhere behind the three, all of them turned around and...There she was, Blake was jumping from a building to another one, followed by a blond monkey Faunus, "W-What?" Everyone couldn't help but mutter. Where they were going?

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Exactly what the name says, this chapter was more of a re-interpretation of what happened before the Season Finale of Volume 1, but I tried my best to avoid it being completely the same  
> N.2: I'll try to fix the formatting at a later date, and use a different text editor for next chapter, none of this half-page crap  
> N.3: Before I get into any shit (Because I know the RWBY Fandom), I don't ship ANYTHING in RWBY, so don't mistake the Blake and Sun's interaction as anything that could imply Black Sun, reversely, don't expect any Bumblebee either


	15. Emperor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a bulkier chapter, straight from the oven.  
> Also, Volume 4 Chapter 8 was such an exposition dump, yes, but did it fuel my will to write? Hell yes.

Blake and Sun were hiding inside one of the many warehouses near the dock, Sun was sitting down on a crate with a dumb  
grin on his face, "See? This place isn't secured at all, look at how easily we managed to sneak in!" he proclaimed, Blake  
crossed her arms and frowned, "And that's why you brought me out here? To prove that the docks, that oh so happen to have  
Dust containers, are not thightly secured and thus can be stolen?" She asked, her legs felt rather sore from all the  
jumping she had to do to get there. "Well...Yeah" he simply said, confused on why she was upset about this.  
She still didn't believe the White Fang was behind the Dust theft, it just wasn't like them to do something like this, or  
at least that's what she hoped. However, that hope quickly vanished as both heard some very loud noises...Coming from  
above. Blake peeked out of the warehouse, confirming her suspicions "Airships..." she muttered, multiple ones at that, no  
simple criminal organisation would have the guts to steal something with a rather loud airship, let alone three or four,  
unless they were absolutely confident they'd not be caught. She signed at Sun to lay low and follow her as they both  
walked out the warehouse, the two edged close to were the airships landed, and swiftly climbed up one of the warehouses.  
Blake squinted her eyes to see better, multiple persons were getting out of the airships, all wearing masks, and armors  
with the symbol of the White Fang painted on them.

"Y'know, I know this isn't the right time to say it, but I told you..." Sun whispered, Blake turned around with a look  
that said "Stay silent", and kept looking down. two particular persons stepped out of the airships that didn't wear the  
White Fang attire, one was a well-dressed ginger-haired man, with a cigar in his mouth, who was clearly identifiable as  
Roman Torchwick, and the other was a bulky blond man wearing old-fashioned looking clothes, both of them visibly weren't  
Faunus. "What the...?" Blake asked under her breath, the White Fang was working with humans?  
"Come on, come on, we don't have all night!" Roman shouted at the White Fang members, and promptly all of them began to  
swiftly crack open various containers, all of them with the Schnee Dust company logo, and grabbing every speck of Dust  
inside, getting them towards the airships. Not only they were working with humans, they were taking orders from one. "I'm  
not exactly an expert in heists, but isn't it a bit bad to go out uncovered and talk loudly?" The blond man asked, Roman  
simply laughed, "What's there to worry about? The security here is non-existant!" he shouted, Blake gritted her teeth at  
his smugness.

Without warning Sun, Blake jumped down with a firm hold of her weapon, "Hey hey, who's tha-" The blond man couldn't even  
finish his question before Blake swung her sword towards two White Fang members in her way, the first to be hit flew back  
with a shout, hitting the second White Fang member and making them both smack into a container. "Well then!" Roman  
exclaimed, tapping his cane on the ground, and looked at the dozen or so White Fangs around him "Come on, you filthy  
mutts, get her!" he ordered, and reluctantly they all charged toward her. Blake unsheathed the sword from her edged  
scabbard, and easily charged through them without one of them managing to land a single hit, sending surprised White Fangs  
flying around like ragdolls, in all fairness, regular White Fang members weren't any tougher than unskilled street tugs,  
so even for a first-year Huntress they weren't a problem, the real problem came to the other, surely more experienced two.

"Well then, you all were a bunch of help" Roman mumbled, looking over at the battered White Fang members trying to land a  
scratch on her, or at least tire her out, "Hol Horse, your turn" He turned towards the man named Hol Horse, the man  
grinned as in his hand appeared somewhere...A gun, pointing it right at Blake, and... "Hey! I'm here too!" a voice rang  
out from above, as the White Fangs looked up they saw Sun falling towards them at high speed, holding what seemed like a  
metal staff in hand, without even giving them time to scatter, Sun slammed into the ground, slamming the staff directly  
onto a White Fang member directly below, sparkles of Aura could be seen as she fell on the ground, completely knocked out,  
"Man, you people are truly crazy" Hol Horse said, recovering from the distraction and pointing the gun at Blake, she  
swiftly turned her head to look at the gun as she swiftly dodged a White Fang's scimitar, could that have been his weapon?  
No, that couldn't be it, there was some sort of...Aura around it, and the way he called it out, it had to be..."A Stand?!"  
Blake shouted, and just a second after, Hol Horse pushed the trigger.

Blake could feel a great danger coming from that single bullet, she dodged out of the way, leaving a stone 'After-Image'  
of herself, "W-Wait, what's a Stand?" Sun asked asked confused, before getting distracted from, again, the White Fang.  
Blake had guessed right, the bullet penetrated the stone like it was nothing, and just when it was about to hit a White  
Fang member behind it the bullet unnaturally curved, following after Blake, "Mm, didn't know people here knew about  
Stands." Hol Horse said, smirking. "Man, these guys are relentless!" Sun shouted, slamming his staff to a White Fangs's  
face, knocking them out, Blake couldn't exactly answer that, as she was running away from a bullet, but he was right, even  
though they were weak they were definetly tiring them out. The bullet kept following her, curving around the White Fang  
members, Hol Horse and Roman just stayed there, watching, untill the bullet dissapeared.

Blake couldn't even take a sigh of relief, she had to take care of those two, "Sun! Keep the White Fang occupied!" she  
shouted, and started to charge towards the two without waiting for a reply, and jumped over the head of a WF Member, and  
ran right in front of Hol Horse. Roman quickly went in front of Hol Horse before she could land a hit, and raised his  
metal cane, blocking the hit, with a twirl of the cane he started to land a barrage of hits towards her, "Give me a hand  
here, would you?" Roman said as Blake kept blocking the hits, he was deceptively strong, and each hit took increasing  
amount of energy out of her, Hol Horse swiftly pulled the trigger once more, the bullet curving around Roman, Blake once  
more attempted to dodge, but at the exact moment she tried to roll out of the way Roman swung his cane diagonally, hitting  
her in the gut with enough force to send her flying backwards, making her back slam against one of the airships, "Blake!"  
Sun shouted, taking care of the last of the White Fang, he quickly dashed towards her, not noticing the bullet going  
towards her.

"Two birds with one stone" Hol Horse shouted, but before the Stand's bullet could hit them, Blake regained her composure,  
grabbed Sun by the shirt, and threw him inside the empty airship, and then herself "H-Hey!" He said as he was thrown  
inside, but Blake quickly covered his mouth as they hid inside the ship. "Damn it! I can't see them anymore!" Hol Horse  
shouted as the bullet penetrated through the hull of the airship, penetrating it and missing by a hair's breath Blake,  
"Well, that's not a problem, we just need a few fireworks"  
And with that, Roman raised his cane, pointing the the tip of the cane, revealing a hole in it, towards the airship, he  
then pushed a hidden trigger in the hold of the cane, and then, a blinding red flash of light was shot out of the cane,  
the sound of the 'firework' betrayed him though, as Blake and Sun were able to jump out of the Airship as soon as it got  
close. The Airship exploded in a ball of flames as the 'firework' went off, both Sun and Blake jumped over the flaming  
derelict, completely unharmed

Roman sighed "You two are persistant..." He murmured, and he was about to walk towards them, along with Hol Horse, before  
Sun rushed towards them, staff in hand, Hol Horse, who was right behind Roman once more, was about to pull the trigger  
once more, was taken a bit off guard as the two ends of the staff detached, revealing..."Gunchakus? Are you kidding me?!"  
Hol Horse shouted as Roman once more raised his cane, attempting to block his attack, with a twirl, the gunchakus started  
to hit hard on Roman, altough he was successfully blocking the hits, but as he started to shoot at him at point-blank,  
blocking was taking quite a large chunk out of his energy, and in the meantime Hol Horse, along with a few battered White  
Fang members, started to slowly sneak away towards another airship, Blake was already following them and trying to twart  
their escape, before all of the present could hear a high-pitched voice coming from above, "Seems like we came at the  
right time!"

Ruby was standing on top of a tall roof holding Crescent Rose, and beside her there were Weiss and Yang, Roman looked up  
in surprise, earning a bullet to the forehead thanks to Sun, his Aura protected him, but he reeled back and fell on the  
ground, groggily standing up. The White Fang members sighed and picked up their weapons as they saw the new arrivals,  
while Hol Horse was trying to board the Airship, earning a flying kick in the face from Blake. The three quickly jumped  
down the roof and, weapons ready, and mowed down the few remaining White Fang members, and then all of them surrounded a  
downed Torchwick, "Well then, seems you came back to me, Red." He said with a smirk on his face, "Torchwick..." She  
murmured, looking down at him, scythe at the ready.

But before they could even grab him or restrain him, he swiftly pushed the trigger of the cane, putting the barrel on the  
ground near him, and as the firework went off he went flying in the air with grin on his face, everyone present couldn't  
help but look in shock and awe as Roman went up in the air, and precise like a sniper he somehow fell standing near one of  
the Airhships hauling a Dust cargo, his Aura visibly dissapearing as he quickly entered the Airhsip. "Stop!" Ruby shouted, running towards him, another "Stop!" could be heard too, this time from Hol Horse, "Don't leave me here!" He shouted, half-knocked out because of the kick. Roman simply laughed and closed off the door, and it seems that the airship completely empty to begin with, as, after some loud noises, already starts to fly up, Team RWBY started to quickly shoot the Airship went flying, but the one piloting it either had extreme skill or the luck of the devil, as none of the bullets managed to hit it, the last words they could hear from Roman were "Full speed, Neo!", and quickly the Airship flew out of sight.

Hol Horse sat on the ground, mouth agape from the betrayal, Team RWBY quickly switched over to him, being the last not-unconcious enemy around, "E-Emperor!" he shouted, his Stand appearing on his hand, Ruby couldn't help but smirk a bit as she approached, "If we're comparing sizes..." At those words, Crescent Rose changed shape, transforming into a rather bulky-looking rifle, "I think I have the bigger gun here" she said, gun pointed straight at him. "D-Daaaamn iiiit!" He screamed and pulled the trigger at the same time she did, unfortunately for him, her bullet was faster, hitting him square in the shoulder and create a rather large wound on it, Ruby couldn't help but slightly close her eyes at that, she wasn't used to her human opponents bleeding, "G-Guh..." and with that, Hol Horse closed his eyes, unconcious

"Wow, Ruby, that was actually...A pretty cool line" Weiss couldn't help but admit, and at those words Ruby jumped up and down happily "Yay!"

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: I have to admit, it's much harder to write the high-speed RWBY inspired fights rather than the more slow, strategical JoJo inspired fights, i'm sorry if this isn't exactly a great action sequence  
> N.2: Let me know if the paragraphs were a bit TOO bulky.


	16. Lunchtime Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this new chapter's a bit shorter than most, it was a lazy week.

"L-Listen, I'm sorry for-" Blake's apology was quickly interrupted by Weiss's voice, "No no, it's fine, really. I have been...Kind of ha-" And Weiss's apology was interrupted by Blake, "But I shouldn't have ran away like that, I have done it way too many times in the past" She said with her head hung low. Team RWBY managed to get back to Beacon's grounds before the police took over the docks, and promptly arrested the disoriented White Fang members, altough they were unable to track down the missing containers.

Ruby raised her hands and patted both Blake's and Weiss's shoulders, "Well, it's all good now, right?" she asked with a sickeningly sweet smile on her face, meanwhile Yang was making a call on her Scroll, Weiss being the first one to notice it, "Hey...Who're you calling?" She asked, Yang got the Scroll a bit farther away from her ear, "Well, we've meet some Stand Users, right? So I called Jotaro and the others, apperently they knew the guy!" she announced, and continued to talk to the phone, "Yep, you heard me right, yellow hat, a Stand that looks like a gun, apperently his name is Hole Horse or something like that." she listed off to Jotaro, but the rest of the Team couldn't hear the reply. "Alright, gotcha" Yang concluded and hang up, "He said we should meet tomorrow evening, this is becoming a thing now, isn't it?"  
"What? The Stand Users or the reunions with Jotaro's group?" Blake sarcastically asked as she opened the door of the dormitory, the rest of the team, including Weiss, couldn't help but smile at seeing their friend back to normal

* * *

 

"Man, couldn't they have called us tomorrow?" Polnaref complained, "Well, whatever, so one of 'em shot Hol Horse, huh?" Polnareff continued, Jotaro nodded in response, "Square in the shoulder, he's knocked out at the local hospital and will soon be arrested" Jotaro replied. "Man, those girls, no, those women are something else, aren't they? Handling guns like they're nothing, they're a match to a Stand User, even though they completely lack Stands themselves!" Polnareff exclaimed, relaxing down on his bed, Jotaro raised an eyebrow "You're only catching now that they're not normal people? Not after they saved you from three giant scorpion monsters?"  
Kakyoin meanwhile was sitting on his with a pondering expression, "You know, i'm starting to think...What if this whole world is a Stand?" he unexpectedly suggested, Jotaro and Polnareff couldn't help but stare at him confused, "We've met a lot of crazy Stands, and we're seeing even more now, there's no reason why this whole place couldn't simply be a Stand made to trap us in"  
"That's not possible" Jotaro replied, "They might not be normal people, but the students of this school, along with the citizens of this world, are real, i'm sure of it." he firmly stated, Kakyoin smiled a little and nodded, "I understand, and I trust your decision. But still, this world is pretty bizzare, isn't it? And if the books of this place say something, is that we've only seen a part of it"  
Polnareff groaned and went back to his bunk bed, "How about we go back to sleep? Don't know how you two can be so full of energy in the middle of the night" he complained. The two silently agreed, and still with their school uniform on, went back to bed. And so another day passed like nothing bizzare happened.

* * *

Jotaro was walking out of the class next to Kakyoin, they were both headed towards the meeting place with Team RWBY, and as they walked out, a group of female students surrounded them both, laughing or asking strange questions, Jotaro sighed, both of them had to endure this every day, "Now now, Jotaro, you should be glad so many people like you" Kakyoin said with a smile, but as Jotaro tried to push his way out of the small crowd, something weird happened, a girl, that looked to be slightly older than the first-class students, was standing with her head hung low, two longs rabbit ears portruding from her head, in her hands a pink letter, before Jotaro could even move she handed him the letter, and then promptly turned around and ran off, the students leaned in to look at the closed envelope with curosity and a hint of jealousy, "Hehe, seems you got a love letter, Jotaro" Kakyoin stated, Jotaro looked at him and then at the letter confused, something like this never happened to him.

"Eeeeh? Are you kidding me?" Polnareff exclaimed as he looked at the envelope, "A bunny-girl sent you this letter? We've barely been here for a month and yet everyone wants a piece of you!" He sighed as the three kept walking,"Do you even know the girl?" Jotaro shook his head at the question, "Wasn't anyone from our class, probably a senior" At that, Polnareff couldn't help but grin, "Well, you ought to read it now, don't you?" He stopped walking, looking at Jotaro expectantly, and so did Kakyoin, Jotaro sighed "Give me a break, fine, I'll read it" He opened up the envelope and...The inside was empty.

"Uh?" Jotaro was very confused at this, turning the envelope around and trying to get whatever was inside, but there was nothing, Polnareff's grin quickly turned into a frown, "What an ugly prank, it truly is high school" he stated, he wouldn't show it, but Jotaro was slightly dissapointed as well, he ripped the envelope in half and continued walking, "Well whatever, let's go, Ruby and the others are waiting for us"

* * *

Meanwhile, Team RWBY was eating inside the Cafeteria while they were waiting for Jotaro's group, "Jeez, they're taking a long while" Ruby said, meanwhile Yang was happily discussing with some other students that surrounded here, "Ooh, who?" one of the students asked, looking at Ruby, "I bet it's Jotaro and Kakyoin, aren't they? You are always together!" another one stated, "I'm so jealous!"

"Oh, well..." Yang tried to make up an excuse as to why they hang out so often, "Well, they're new here, so we help them study!" she explained, but it seems only half of the students surrounding her listened, while the other half muttered to themselves, "Isn't Jotaro oddly cute?" one of them suggested, and they all nodded in agreement "He's so big and menacing, but I bet he's like a soft teddy bear!" a blushing student suggested, putting her hands on her cheeks. Yang couldn't help but laugh at this scene, "I don't really get what's so great about them..." Weiss said before putting a fork full of food in her mouth, Ruby closed her eyes and nodded in agreement, but the students looked at them in a way that said "Nobody asked for your opinion!"

Then, the doors of the cafeteria opened, and Jotaro and Kakyoin entered the group, following behind them Polnareff with a bucket and a mop in his hands, Jotaro couldn't even take a step before the swarm of students switched from Yang to him, "Jotaro! Jotaro!" They all shouted happily in unison, Polnareff and Kakyoin, surprised by this sudden enthusiasm, slowly side-stepped the crowd, which seemingly paid no mind to them, "U-Uh, the Jotaro Fanclub seems to be getting a bit intense lately" Polnareff stated, eyeing the crowd that is now tugging at Jotaro's uniform, after a few seconds Jotaro couldn't handle it anymore, "STOP THAT, YOU ARE ALL FUCKING ANNOYING!"

The crowd of students first stopped, then giggled, and as he looked at them, he saw something incredibly bizzare, all of them had heart-shaped pupils, fixed straight towards him. "W-What the hell is going on?" He muttered, the other, more normal students looked at the crowd in confusion, while Team RWBY, Polnareff and Kakyoin looked at them with a worried look on their faces

Suddenly, a small petite girl with the same heart-shaped pupils jumped on Jotaro's back, "W-Wha-" before he could even say anything, the girl started scratching hard at his neck, drawing blood.

[To Be Continued]-->


	17. Chasing 'Round The School

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's bulky!
> 
> As a sidenote, I managed to post this fic to FanFiction.Net too! And had the displeasure of seeing that some other writers had my ideas, but oh well, I won't let that take me down

The heart-eyed students laughed around Jotaro as the petite girl started biting at his neck with ferocity, everyone who  
was witnessing this was stunned, and even more so when the students started to scratch Jotaro heavily. "W-What the fuck?!"  
Polnareff exclaimed, dropping the mop on the ground in sheer surprise, the female students started digging their nails  
into Jotaro's flesh, tearing apart the school uniform, without thinking he shouted "Star Platinum!" and his Stand appeared  
beside him, trying to push off the crowd without hitting them, the regular, far-away students saw it, their mouth agape at  
the Stand, the Headmaster mentioned that it would be better if the regular students didn't know about Stands, but now it  
was too late. "This must be the work of a Stand!" Kakyoin shouted, and Polnareff looked at him frowning, "No shit,  
Kakyoin!"

As Jotaro summoned his stand, so did, hesitantly, did Kakyoin and Polnareff, their Stands trying to grab and throw away  
the frenzied students away, but they just wouldn't let go of Jotaro's body. With a concerned look, Ruby stood up and  
started to run at high speed towards them, but as soon as she got even close to the mob, her movements slowed down,  
feeling lightheaded, "W-What is happen-" she couldn't even finish off her phrase as one of her iris turned heart-shaped,  
Kakyoin, who was seeing this scene, suddenly realized what was happening, "Stop! Don't get near Jotaro!" he shouted, and  
promptly Hierophant Green went in front of the confused Ruby, and pushed her away, making her fall on her behind "You  
four! Please don't try to help us!" He suddenly shouted at Team RWBY, all of them nodded in agreement as they surrounded  
Ruby to help her up.  
As he turned around back at the horde of female students he sighed, they were only by-standers, but they had no choice,  
Hierophant Green charged up an Emerald Splash, and the crystal-like bullets collided with a few students, sending them  
reeling back from the hit, leaving an open space for Jotaro, "Run! Find the Stand that is causing this!" he shouted.

Jotaro took this opportunity fully, turning around and started running as fast as he could out of the cafeteria, the  
students didn't miss a beat and starting quickly chasing after him, the only thing slowing them doing being a hail of  
emerald bullets coming behind them. But they were tenacius, way too tenacius, they shrugged off the bullets like they were  
nothing, only partly thanks to the Aura, Jotaro was thankfull the frenzied Huntresses didn't bring their weapons to the  
cafeteria, or else he'd be completely screwed. The scene must be pretty weird to someone just bystanding, the new guy  
being chased around the school grounds by a bunch of female students, Jotaro ignored them and tried to avoid females as  
much as possible as he ran around, or else it'd be another Huntress in the horde.

Jotaro quickly opened the door of the main school building and ran inside the hallway, the hallway was quite wide,  
probably being able to handle five people side to side, but certainly not the dozen of students chasing him, they tried to  
walk through the hallway as one anyway, they were quickly compacted and slowed down, reaching out their arms at Jotaro, he  
didn't bother looking back as he ran around the school, trying to find somewhere to hide, and make things calm down,  
fortunately the place was completely devoid of people due to it being lunch break, so he safely ran inside one of the  
classrooms.

Unlike the classrooms in Japan, the ones of Beacon felt more like auditoriums than actual classes, rows upon rows of seats  
were placed at the back of the classes where the students would be, while at the other end should have stood the teacher,  
there weren't even any windows to speak of. There wasn't anywhere he could truly hide in such a place, and as he looked  
around, he could hear the sounds of many, many footsteps coming towards him, he had to choose where to hide... but where?  
The footsteps were getting louder.

* * *

 

The students in the cafeteria were whispering and murmuring to eachother about what happened, some walking towards Team  
RWBY to ask them answers they couldn't reply with, while in the meantime both Polnareff and Kakyoin ran out of the  
cafeteria in a rush, Ruby was standing up a bit groggily, her left iris still heart-shaped, "A-Aaa...Weird  
thoughts....Can't...Handle them..." And just like that, she fell to the ground with a thud, completely unconcius, Weiss  
sighed as she knelt beside her unconcious friend, "Great, this is just great" she said, slapping Ruby's cheek gently with  
the back of her palm, but she wouldn't wake up, "Another attack so soon, damn. Dio, or whoever is behind these people  
truly hold a crudge..." Blake stated, her arms crossed, Yang was looking a mix of impatient and anxious, "Damn it! Why  
can't we help Jotaro!?" Yang shouted, Blake turned towards her and explained "You saw what happened to Ruby, right? We  
can't get close to him, we have to leave this to his companions."

The two were running around with absolutely no goal in mind, where the hell were they supposed to search? "We are getting  
nowhere, Kakyoin! Who could be the Stand User?" Polnareff shouted, Kakyoin looked down at the ground and kept running,  
who? Who could have done something that might have activated the Stand? Suddenly, an idea came to mind, "Of course! The  
bunny girl!" He suddenly shouted, Polnareff looked at him a bit confused, "You know... The bunny Faunus that gave Jotaro  
the empty letter?" As he specified, Polnareff's face lit up in realization, "And since she's an upperclassman, and she  
wasn't in the cafeteria...She must be in the upperclassmen's dorms!"

However, there were multiple dorms, each one reserved for teams of different years. But, as luck would have it, the two  
immediatly saw the bunny girl standing outside one of the dorms, along with three other people , probably her team, "D-  
Damn it, I thought she would have been alone" Polnareff murmured, "Well, we don't know if she's the Stand user, you know?"  
Kakyoin said in a low voice, so that only Polnareff could hear him, and started to approach them.

Meanwhile, Jotaro was having a hard time squeezing under the seats, he had no other choice, but his large body made it  
very difficult for him to hide under there, he held his breath as the students walked inside, he hoped they would pass by  
seeing there was no-one there, but he had no such luck. The students for the first time split up as they entered the room,  
each of them looking around with a creepy, unnatural grin on their faces as they walked through the room like a bunch of  
hunting dogs, some of them getting dangerously close to his hiding spot, if they were to discover him, he'd have to fight  
them, and though he'd probably win he would want to keep that as a last resort, as that would only be a temporary  
solution. He had to get out of there and find the Stand User, but how could he do that without fighting them directly? As  
he continued to think about the next move, his thoughts were abruptly interrupted by someone pulling hard on his ripped  
uniform's collar, and pulling him out of his hiding spot? "W-What?!" He couldn't help but shout as he looked up at the  
muscular woman pulling him, he could swear he saw her hear-shaped iris glow at that moment, and then, she picked him up  
like he was feather-weight, and threw him on the other side of the room, sending him flying for five meters and making his  
back slam into the wall, and all the heads of the frenzied students turned towards him. How? How did they find out?  
As Jotaro slowly and groggily stood up, the answer was stupidly obvious, the scratches left a very clear blood trail, he  
thightened his bruised fist, and so did Star Platinum when it appeared, it was time for the last resort plan "Give me a  
fucking break, you all don't give me a choice"

* * *

 "O-Oh, right, I was the one who sent that letter" The bunny Faunus called Velvet replied, the fashionable Team leader  
called Coco turned to look at her, quite surprised, "I had no idea" she said with a teasing tone, the shy Velvet looked  
down, "It's not like that, a-another Faunus girl gave me that letter, told me to send it to him!" she tried to explain,  
Coco laughed, and patted her back, "I know I know" she said in a reassuring manner, and then looked back at the surprised  
two, "Well, there you have it" she simply said, holding her suitcase in hand, "Would you look at the time, lunch break's  
almost over." she said, looking down to look at her Scroll, the two's eyes widened at those words, only now realizing how  
much time had passed. If Jotaro was stuck inside the school building, and the students were about to return inside...That  
would mean extreme trouble. Kakyoin quickly apologized to the upperclassmen and both quickly started to run towards the  
main building.

The ORAs and the sounds of punches could be heard very clearly inside the fist floor of the school, and even a bit beyond,  
"ORA!" With a strong punch, another frenzied Huntress flew backwards, hitting the wall, he was, however, holding back,  
hitting hard enough so that their Aura could protect them, but even then they just wouldn't stop standing up and charging  
towards him with no sense of preservation, "D-Damn it, they won't stop!" Jotaro exclaimed, if it continued like this,  
someone there would have bit the dust. Could he use Star Platinum: The World to get out of this situation? No, Jotaro  
couldn't even consider using that ability, unlike for Dio, time-stopping was incredly draining for him, there was only one  
thing to do at that point, he de-activated his Stand, and started to jump from seat to seat, avoiding the students who  
were mimicking his moves in order to follow him, after punching away another frenzied girl standing near the door of the  
classroom, he saw something...A small silhoutte of a female watching from the hallway, before he could properly identify  
the stranger, she started running away, or better put, jumping away.

Kakyoin and Polnareff charged inside the building at high speed, too late to see the silhoutte pass by, but just in time  
to see Jotaro, full of cuts and bruises, running in the hallway, "Keep 'em occupied! I think I saw the Stand User!" He  
shouted, before patting Kakyoin's shoulder as he passed by, the horde of students behind him, Kakyoin and Polnareff,  
quickly stood between them and the running Jotaro, "If i'm right, they shouldn't attack us!" Kakyoin proclaimed, and  
suddenly...The horde stopped, only for a second, before turning their heads towards Kakyoin, grinning and licking their  
lips like wolves finding a new prey, and all at once started charging towards him, "Chariot!" Polnareff shouted, and  
promptly Silver Chariot appeared in front of the surprised Kakyoin, slashing away at the dozen of students, trying to harm  
them as little as possible, "I think Jotaro attached the enemy Stand's ability to you!" Polnareff tried to explain,  
Kakyoin's eyes suddenly lit up as the Huntresses started piling on top of each other, attempting to reach Kakyoin,  
"Polnareff, stop! I have an idea!"

One thing was sure, Beacon was huge, way bigger than any other school Jotaro had ever seen, dozens and dozens of rooms  
lined up in the large hallways, it felt like running in a maze. And in fact, after a turn of the corner, Jotaro lost what  
little vision he had of the girl, he stopped, looking around the hallway, and just like before the turn, there were at  
least a dozen rooms in that hallway alone, all of the doors open and at the end there was a flight of stairs going  
upwards, ""Where? Where did she go?" Jotaro asked himself, he catiously started to walk through the hallway, and looked  
inside the open rooms, all of them were classrooms, some smaller than the others, but before he could start inspecting the  
rooms, something catched his eyes, one on of the steps of the stairs laid a single pink colored hair, and as he  
approached, more hair layed up the stair, like a small trail.

Already understanding where she headed, he started running all they way up the stairs, and up there was...Yet another  
hallway, of course, but fortunately, the hair was laying on the ground like a trail of bread crumbs, whoever was the owner  
of said hair was losing it fast, "Lucky me" He muttered, the trail was leading up to another room, he slowly approached  
the closed door, he slowly slid the door open, and the inside was...Completely and utterly dark, but visibly wide, it was  
like a storage room, he squinted his eyes in order to see something through t,he darkness, but to no avail, he slowly  
started to feel the wall to his right, trying to see if there was a switch of some kind, and then...  
Something fell from the roof, before Jotaro could even react he felt a sharp pain to his right hand, whoever fell down  
impaled his hand on the wall with a curved dagger, luckily only slightly chipping the bone, and after a giggle the  
attacker quickly ran out of the room. With a quick movement he grabbed the hilt of the dagger and pulled it out, a stream  
of blood gushing out of the wound, "G-Guh...Bastard." He murmured, dropping the dagger on the floor.

* * *

 "A-Are you sure about this?" Polnareff asked, Kakyoin nodded, and summoned Hierophant Green, unlike most humanoid Stands,  
Hireophant Green completely lacked legs, instead having one long tail, that thanks to its long range could stretch out  
indefinetly. Kakyoin approached the horde as bait, they promptly charged towards him while completely ignoring his Stand,  
the students at the front trying swing their arms towards Kakyoin as he quickly backed away, while his Stand started  
circling around the horde, "D-Damn! It's like they're the walking dead or something!" Polnareff, who was watching from the  
side, shouted, Hierophant Green started to wrap its tail around the horde by circling around them, the long tail  
thightened around the Huntresses's waists, the girls started to struggle against the thight rope-tail to no success,  
Hierophant Green spinned around the girls more and more, wrapping them in its tail, when it was over all of them were tied  
together, their torso wrapped thightly, they continued to struggle uselessly, they couldn't move any longer.

"Holy crap, I can't believe it worked!" Polnareff shouted, if he had to be honest, Kakyoin was too surprised that it  
worked so well, he didn't think his Stand could be strong enough to stop a dozen rampaging women dead in their tracks!

Jotaro started to chase after his attacker, his wounded hand aching terribly, now he could see her back clearly, she was  
small, extremely so, and her bobcut hair was brightly pink colored, but not only that, her fluffy-looking tail was also  
bright pink, she was clearly a Faunus, and she was fast. "Damn it, she's not withing five meters" he said to himself,  
suddenly the girl turned around to face him, and started running backwards, a cocky grin on her face, "Hehe! Do you really  
think you can get me?" she said with a squeaky, awfully cute voice, on her face there was a mask that looked exactly like  
Polnareff described the other Stand User, a white mask, with red lines all over it, but, as far as he told him, that mask  
completely covered the User's face, while this one's only covered the upper half.

Jotaro slowed down a little when the White Fang assasin pulled out another curved dagger from her robe and threw it at  
him, swiftly Star Platinum appeared in front of him and punched the dagger neatly in half, the girl giggled again, "Such  
strenght! Too bad you can't get me!" she exclaimed as she turned back around, and with comical timing, didn't see the  
flight of stairs in front of her, and promptly tripped on the steps and fell on her face. "OW ow ow!" She shouted as she  
slowly got back up, Jotaro sighed and walked up to her, "You're adorable, I have to admit, I almost feel bad that i'm  
going to beat the shit out of you" She quickly looked towards him, an expression of fear on her face, Jotaro looked back  
at his wounded hands and at his ripped uniform, and then back at her, "Almost" he firmly stated as Star Platinum appeared  
in front of him, and.... "ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA. ORA!" The ORA's started to merge as the punches  
rained down the little pink fox-girl, her aura quickly flickering and dying as the punches kept on coming, and after a  
strong punch, the fox-girl flew up the stairs, "A-Aaaaaaaah!" She screamed before hitting the ground, and then nothing.

[Name: Pink Season. Stand: The Bad Touch. RETIRED]

"So, you think Jotaro got the Stand Use-" Before Kakyoin could even finish his question, a question rang out the hallway,  
"W-What is happening?! Where am I?!" A female voice shouted, as Kakyoin looked around, he could see the ten or so girls  
were looking around confused, "W-What is this thing?!" one shouted, looking at Kakyoin's Stand, and then, with horrible  
timing, a bell ringed, and already the students were walking back inside the school, clearly seeing the scene.

And then, Polnareff shouted "For fuck sake!"

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Sorry (Not) for naming the User Pink Season, I couldn't resist  
> N.2: Thanks to the guest in FanFiction.Net that gave me some good Stand names!


	18. Talking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, managed to write out this chapter quite easily, it's mostly what the title says it is, so don't expect any action like the previous chapter was.

Only a few seconds passed, but for Kakyoin and Polnareff both they felt like minutes. The Huntsmen and Huntresses in   
training were watching them with a shocked expression on their faces, a young-looking Huntsman pointed at Hierophant Green   
"T-That's the thing that appeared in the Cafeteria too!" he shouted, and was about to grab something from his belt   
buckle...A gun! Kakyoin quickly de-activated the Stand, letting the trapped Huntresses free, "C-Crap! I forgot they can   
see them too!" He shouted, the Huntsman continued to point the gun at Kakyoin, half-confused and half-scared, "Y-You   
weirded me out since the first day! Just what is your deal?!" he shouted and then quickly moved his gun to Polnareff "Y-   
You too, janitor!" Kakyoin raised his hands at the threat, and so did Polnareff, "L-Listen, it's not what you all think it   
i-" Before he could even finish the phrase, the young Huntsman continued to blabber "N-Not what it seems, huh?! Than what   
DOES it seems?" His hand was visibly shaking, more and more students began walking inside the school, all of them worried   
and some of them freaking out.

And even before Kakyoin could even finish his arguement, four figures started pushing their way in the crowd, Kakyoin   
instinctively took a sigh of relief as he saw Team RWBY rushing over to them. Ruby stood in front of Kakyoin, right in   
front of the Huntsman's gun, "They're allies! There's no reason to panic!" she said, at her declaration most students   
seemed to calm down, even if just a little, except the panicking Huntsman in front of her, clearly not believing what she   
was saying, but before the students could say anything more, all of them could hear the distinct sound of footseps coming   
from the hallway, and the sound of a cane tapping the ground, "It seems that the situation is getting a little bit out of   
hand." The calm voice seemed to tower over the panicked student's voices, Professor Ozpin walked towards the crowd,   
standing in front of the two Stand User, the panic seemed to already die down, "These two gentlemans are, as Miss Rose   
said, our 'allies', they mean no harm, they just have different...Abilities from you all, and were simply struck by   
misfortune." The students were already raising questions at Ozpin's vague speech, but he didn't answer any of them, "I   
promise that events like this will not happen again on school grounds, as security is going to get thighter from today's   
onwards, all further explainations will be given, at a later date" He continued, the Huntsman in training slowly put down   
his gun, and back to his belt, and with that, Ozpin turned around, and walked away.

"Damn, how many times did he get us out of troubles?" Polnareff asked, "I'm starting to lose count" Kakyoin answered with   
a sigh, sitting on the ground, the crowd was quickly walking away to each of the student's classes like nothing happened,   
whatever was the case Ozpin really had something about him that calmed down the students. Yang looked around with a   
confused expression on her face, "Hey, where's Jotaro?" she asked, Kakyoin looked up at her and pointed at the hallway   
behind himself, "Probably upstairs, he apperently managed to find and beat down the Stand user up there" As soon as he   
answered that, Yang started rushing towards the stairs, "He could be wounded, I'm gonna go get him!" she exclaimed with   
her usual smile, and after a turn, went out of sight.

Weiss, for whatever reason, rolled her eyes as she did so, and turned towards the two Stand Users, Blake was the first to   
ask a question, patting the still-quite-groggy Ruby on the head as she did so, "You all have been very secretive, even   
with us, we don't even know where you three sleep, and it's still not quite clear who 'Dio' is for us. Why is he   
so...Intensely trying to get rid of you?" She asked, trying to take every bit of information she could get, "Well...Let's   
jus-" Blake stopped Kakyoin mid-sentence, a serious look on her face "No, no, no more 'Let's just say'. Tell us how things   
are, at this point we're in the same situation, these Stand Users put the school in risk too." she said, Kakyoin sighed,   
knowing there was no way they could satisfy her without telling the truth. "Let's wait 'till Jotaro comes back, and then   
we'll have the nice long chat you want" Polnareff intervened, Blake nodded, and so did Weiss soon after, while Ruby was   
rubbing her eyes in a sleepy way, the effects of the Stand still persisting, "N-Need...Sleep, and some brain bleach." she   
splurted out, stumbling around like she was quite tipsy.

* * *

 

Yang pushed through the passing students and rushed upstairs, even at a far away distance and in the middle of the crowd   
the wounded Jotaro sticked out like a sore thumb, the students looked at him worried, they had yet to notice the   
unconcious Stand User up the stairs. "Hey!" Yang shouted and waved her hand in the hopes Jotaro could see her, he blinked   
a few times, staring blankly at her direction, and began walking towards her, his wounded hand hidden in the bloodied   
pocket of his ruined uniform. Yang grinned at seeing Jotaro alive and, mostly, well, and jogged towards him, "Sorry I   
couldn't help you, it probably would have been a lot less messy if we were there covering for you." She said when she   
stood right in front of him, "Come on, let's get you fixed up" she said with a smile, walking to his side and putting a   
hand on his shoulder, "You're not really that worried about my wounds, aren't you?" He noticed, looking down at her with   
his usual deadpan look, Yang didn't even hesitate when she replied, "Well, even without Aura you heal pretty quickly, the   
wounds from our spar healed up in just a day, didn't they?"  
Jotaro lowered his head a bit, like a small nod, "I guess you're right," He started, while walking along side her, "Still,   
I thought someone like you would get worried at a sight like this" He moved his slashed hand out of the pocket, basically   
showing it off to her, she didn't say it, but Yang couldn't help but admire Jotaro's endurance of pain, a wound like that   
would be almost cripplingly painful for anyone, and yet he carried on like nothing happened. Yang averted her purple eyes   
from the wound, a big smile on her face "C'mon, you're a big tough boy, you don't need people always showing concern to   
you, it would get preeetty annoying, wouldn't it?" she said, Jotaro silently agreed, but was she actually concerned of   
him? Yes, just a bit.

The Stand Users, thankfully, were allowed to skip class due to such an "incident", but Team RWBY wasn't as lucky, so they   
would have to wait after school before they could have their full explaination of the situation, Jotaro and the others   
went inside the small hospital inside school grounds, this time making sure none of the nurses were Stand Users, and sat   
silently as Jotaro got fixed up, fortunately the slash was nothing a bandage couldn't solve, and the small cuts could heal   
by themselves, however, "This outfit will take a little bit more fixing" The male nurse said, looking at the uniforn in   
his hands, Jotaro, now in a tank top, looked up at the nurse with a confused expression, "Don't tell me you all fix   
clothes too" he said, the nurse laughed "Well, of course, in the midst of battle it does happen that some clothes get   
ripped, so it's our job to patch them up too"  
Jotaro didn't say anything more, and allowed the nurse to take away his uniform, "Now it's the second time your uniform   
gets ripped" Kakyoin laughed a bit at the fact, "So now i'm supposed to walk into school in a tank top? Good grief, even   
as a delinquent I wouldn't do that" the self-proclaimed delinquent Jotaro stated, as soon as he said that, a female nurse   
walked into the room, holding a folded up outfit in her arm, "Oh, don't worry!" the cheerful nurse said, "Of course, we'll   
give you a temporary uniforn while yours gets fixed" she stated, walking over to him and handing the folded outfit at him,   
Jotaro slowly looked down at it, it was a simple white school uniform, with the emblem of Beacon embedded above one of the   
chest pockets, it looked just right his size too. Jotaro simply stared at it for a few seconds, before Polnareff spoke,   
"So, you gonna put that on or not?" Jotaro looked at him for a second, and then back at the uniform, with a sigh he   
unfolded it, and promptly put it on.

A few hours later, after the classes were out, the sun started to set and the sky started to turn a nice shade of orange,   
Kakyoin sent a message at the team to meet the at the coffee shop outside school, the rumors of the three's strange powers   
spread like wildfire in the Academy, so they'd have to go there for a little bit of privacy. The Huntresses slowly   
approached the table where the Stand Users were sitting, "Ugh, you could have choosen another place, I think I lost my   
taste for this coffee shops after that incident" Weiss said as she sat down, she was obviously referring to the Stand   
Attack made on them, or better, made on Polnareff, "No kidding..." Blake nodded and sat down next to Polnareff, Yang and   
Ruby sat down without many complaints, excluding Ruby grunting about her headache."In any case, what do you all want to   
know?" Jotaro asked, Yang was the first to raise a hand, "Why do you look much slimmer with that white uniform on?"  
Jotaro sighed and ignored her question, but even Kakyoin couldn't help but laugh a bit under his breath, "Anyone else?"   
his eyes wandered towards Blake, who was tapping a finger on the table looking impatient, and while Yang jokingly   
complained that hers's was a serious question, Blake spoke up, "Just tell us everything, don't leave out anything   
important this time, who exacly is Dio? Why would he be here? What is happening?" she thre around questions like a machine   
gun, Jotaro sighed once more, "Kakyoin, Polnareff, you talk" he simply said, not wanting to admit he was no good at giving   
long explainations.

* * *

 

All in all, it probably wasn't such a great idea to speak about such sensitive topics in a public place, even if they   
attempted to whisper important words such as "Vampire", "Stands" or "Egypt", but thankfully the coffee shop was nearly   
empty. "And then we found ourselves here" Polnareff concluded, who sneakily left out the fact that they actually did   
defeat Dio once, due to Kakyoin's presence, "That's...Worse than I thought it'd be" Blake admitted, her eyes a bit widened   
at the retelling of their journey, "Yeah, at first I thought he'd be some sort of criminal lord, like Roman Torchwick, but   
if he's an 'immortal vampire'..." Ruby said looking down, her headache feeling like nothing after such a long   
explaination, "He could be a threat to all of Vale, or even Remnant itself" Yang finished up Ruby's phrase, all of Team   
RWBY looked quite grim, annd rightfully so. "So...You both mentioned that Jotaro and Dio share an invisible family bond,   
due to Dio taking Jotaro's ancestor body as his own, am I understanding that right?" Blake asked, Jotaro nodded, "I can   
feel that he's present in this world, but he must be very far away" He admitted  
"This is a lot of bizzare stuff to take in all at once..." Weiss sighed as she slowly took a sip out of the cup she   
ordered, "Then...What should we do now?" Ruby asked, looking at the Stand Users with a worried look, "We must find out   
where Dio is, obviously, but we three only barely explored this town, we don't know anything about what's outside   
excluding what we saw in the maps" Kakyoin said, "Oh, yeah!" Yang's face suddenly lit up with a grin, "Professor Ozpin   
said he would send 'Informants' to find informations about him, right? Maybe they found something!" she exclaimed, but the   
others remained as moody as before, "Doubt it, Professor Ozpin would have told us about it, so they probably haven't found   
anything" Jotaro stated, and stood up, walking outside the shop, "H-Hey! Wait for us!" Ruby said, standing up and   
following him, "Well, I guess this reunion is over" Kakyoin said with a slight smile.

A few days later:  
Professor Ozpin was looking outside the window with his usual calm look, holding his cane down, Glynda standing beside   
him, "He's earlier than I thought he'd be" she said with a slightly annoyed tone, as soon as she said that, the door of   
the Headmaster's office slammed open, and a middle-aged man, wearing a white jacket, entered the room, "Ozpin, what the   
hell is going on?!" He shouted, approaching the desk, Glynda sighed and turned towards him, "Calm down, James" Ozpin   
simply said, turning around and sitting down on his chair, "I'll calm down when you explain to me what the hell is going   
on, and what happened to Qrow!" He stated, Ozpin raised a hand, and then slowly brought it down, as if saying 'lower your   
volume'  
James took a deep breath, and slowly sat down at a chair in front of the desk, "Listen, Ozpin, I trust you, but these last   
few days you didn't tell me the full truth, what is happening here? Why are those 'new' students using powers we've never   
even heard of before? And what about those attacks inside school grounds? Is the enemy making her move?" he inquired,   
Ozpin said nothing for a few seconds, before finally speaking up, "A new threat has arrived, James." he simply said, James   
thightened his fist, "What do you mean 'new threat'? You mean this couldn't be HER fault?"  
"It could be, James, but indirectly, whoever is doing this, co-ordinating this attacks, is not from our world" he stated,   
reminiscing of the time the Stand Users told him about Dio, James's eyes widened "Not from our world? What does that even   
mean?" James questioned, "You wanted to know why Qrow is taking so long, right?" Ozpin asked, avoiding answering the   
general's question, James quickly nodded, "Yes, did something happen to him?" James asked, but Ozpin quickly shook his   
head, "Not as far as he informed me, I just...Gave him another mission, about finding out this 'new threat'"  
As soon as he said that, the Headmaster's Scroll, that was laying on the table, suddenly ringed, Ozpin looked at James,   
and then slowly picked up the Scroll, "It's a message...From Qrow" he stated, the three inside the room walking towards   
him to read the content of the message.

'Found one of those 'Stand' guys in a small village, he promptly tried to mug me, the guy managed to wound me using these 'liquid bubbles'   
shot at high speed towards me, but the guy had no fighting experience, took care of him easily, even though I think i'll   
need some healing after this"  
After a few seconds, another message arrived  
"I knocked him off his feet, and just my luck, he didn't know anything about 'Dio', he just remembers being shot with an   
arrow by a strange guy with yellow eyes, as far as he told me he ran away, the arrow only slightly grazing his leg, and   
then he got this power."

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Drinking Game: Take a shot every time you read 'Uniform' in this chapter


	19. New Old Faces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short-ish chapter, it's not been the greatest week and i haven't been very productive.

"Well, this was a waste of time" Qrow sighed, putting away the Scroll and looked down at the wounded thug in front of him,   
"P-Please, leave me alone now!" he shouted, but Qrow kept approaching him inside the dark alley between two buildings,   
Qrow sighed once more as he raised his sword, "Good night" He simply said, bringing the flat of the sword down to the   
thug's head, and with a loud smacking sound, the Stand User whined and fell on the ground with a thud. As the mugger fell   
unconcious Qrow strapped his weapon to his back, and kept walking down, now where the hell would he go? He had absolutely   
no lead on this Dio, and he's been running around villages for quite a while now, "Thanks, Ozpin" he sarcastically   
muttered, well, he sent his message, might as well enjoy himself while he was there.  
As he started to walk towards the tavern of the small town, thinking of either getting drunk or flirting with the   
waitresses, or both, but his thoughts were suddenly interrupted as he noticed quite a large group of people gathered near   
the entrance of the small tavern. Qrow raised an eyebrow at such a strange scene, and slowly approached them, trying to   
see what they were looking at, he didn't exactly know what to expect, but what he saw certainly wasn't that. Sitting on   
the ground and resting his back on the building was a wounded young man, not any older than 16, he had quite a few bruises   
on himself, and two large wounds on his legs, with two wooden poles sticking out of them, but what was even more eye-   
catching was his bizzare hairdo, that seemed much like a flat pompadour. The young man suddenly opened his eyes, who were   
suddenly filled with anger, "K-KIRA! WHERE ARE YOU?!" He suddenly shouted, making most of the villagers around him jump in   
surprise.  
Qrow sighed, it seemed he would have had to come back to Beacon sooner than he expected.

* * *

 

The weekend had finally come, and Team RWBY were slothing inside their dorm, doing nothing at all, "I'm getting kind of   
worried" Ruby stated, still in her PJ's from morning, "We haven't seen them since our meeting, they didn't go to school or   
anything" she said, looking down from her bunk bed, "They're probably waiting until the rumors die down." Blake, who was   
laying on her bed and reading a book, quickly stated, Weiss sighed, "Doubt that's going to happen any time soon, things   
like that are hard to forget." she replied, Ruby relaxed back on the bed, putting both of her hands behind her head, "I   
guess...Is there even anybody in this school that hasn't heard about these rumors by now?"  
And it turned out, there were.

Or better, it's not that they heard of the rumors, but not that they particularly cared, Team JNPR had other problems to   
deal with, particularly the two leaders of the team, "C'mon, Pyrrha! It's way too sunny out to train!" Jaune whined,   
looking out the windows, it was indeed an extremely beautiful day, not a single cloud in the sky. "You know, if you're   
scared to sweat a little under the sun, how are you going to make monster-hunting your job?" The red-headed Pyrrha asked   
with a smile on her face, grabbing hold of her sword and shield, Jaune sighed at her question, "Well...Fine" His shoulders   
slumped down, and turned around to a cheerfull-as-ever Pyrrha, who was about to exit the room, "Wait, where's Ren and   
Nora?" He asked, as if he only noticed now the fact that they were not present, "Probably playing some games at an Arcade"   
she simply said, walking out of the room, Jaune slowly followed after her, regretting not being with his other teammates   
right then.  
He was right, the day was extremely sunny and hot, a bad day for someone to train in a rooftop in the middle of the day,   
Jaune sweated bullets as he clumsily swung his sword towards Pyrrha, she blocked the hit with ease, she promptly swung her   
sword back, but she visibly held back and slowed down as the sword got close to him, he raised his shield as quickly as he   
could muster, her weapon scraped against the shield and sending sparks flying, Jaune reeled back a bit, ran towards her   
sparring partner. and swung his sword again, this time, maybe because she didn't expect such speed, or because she allowed   
it, the sword collided against her, hitting her in the arm, usually such a hit would give a very, very nasty cut, but due   
to Aura not even a bruise was visible, Pyrrha stopped moving, got out of her battle stance, and gave a wide smile at   
Jaune.

"You're getting better and better" She said in an honest tone as Jaune cleaned himself of the sweat with a towel as they   
both walked back towards the dormitory, "If you say so..." he slowly said, but just as he was about to open the door to   
their room, two familiar figures were approaching them, one of them at incredibly high speed, "Guuuys!" Nora shouted as   
she ran towards her other two teammates, almost slamming into Jaune while doing so "You will not believe what Ren and I   
just found! It's like this weird shack outside the academy, apperently nobody knew it was there! We should totally check   
it out!" She said happily, Ren standing beside her and looking at his...Quite confused teammates, "S-Shack....?" Jaune   
repeated, "Yeah! Let's go!" She promptly grabbed Jaune by the arm and started running off, Ren slowly raised his arms in   
the air and lifted his shoulders, as if saying "I didn't have anything to do with that", at the surprised Pyrrha.  
The three followed the quite excited Nora outside the school, apperently if you walked left after reaching the gate, then   
after a few meters a left again, then entered the thick foliage, and then went right, you would arrive at the shack, and   
indeed, it was just like that. "Ta-da!" Nora turned around towards the other members of Team JNPR and pointed at the   
building behind her, Pyrrha leaned in to whisper to Ren as she did so, "H..How did she find it anyway?" She whispered, "I   
have absolutely no idea" Ren promptly replied, Jaune took a few steps closer towards the shack to look at it better, it   
surely looked old, but also...Renewed in a way.  
"D-Do you think we should kno-" Before he could finish his phrase, Nora 'gently' pushed him out of the way and walked   
towards the door, "Oh please, nobody lives here" she said with confidence, and then slammed the door open.  
It was very dark inside, but the Team could tell inside there was a small hallway, with about a door on the left, right,   
and forward each, Nora turned around towards Jaune with a grin on her face, "Leaders first!"  
"U-Um, right..." Jaune slowly took a few steps inside the shack, he looked to his right in order to see if there was a   
light switch, but as he did so he saw...Something long slithering along the wall, but when he blinked, it wasn't there,   
"Jaune, why do you look so pale all of the sudden?" Pyrrha asked, hurrying over inside. "A-Ahem, nothing." And then, Jaune   
kept walking, too freaked out to look for a light switch, "Mm, which door should we get in first?" Nora, as she said that,   
started looking at the identical wooden doors, spinning around indecisively, Ren walked up to her, and when she spinned   
enough, he placed a hand on her head, and she immediatly stopped, pointing at the door on the left, "That one!"

As soon as she opened the door and took a step into the room, disaster happened. She tripped on something that, at a close   
inspection would look like a green tail, and fell flat on her face, as soon as they got close to check on what happened,   
three figures appeared from under the beds of the dark room, they blinked, no, there were SIX figures now. "W-What the..!"   
Jaune stepped back, away from the room, his other teammates, instead, instinctively grabbed hold of their weapons, which   
Ren had them conviniently hidden inside his sleeves, "Who are you people?" Ren said, calmly as possible, his two guns   
pointed towards the figures, "We should be the ones asking that, what the hell are you all doing here?" One of them said,   
walking over to them, and as he got close more of him was visible: Wide build, with a black hat on his head, in contrast   
with the white Beacon uniform.  
"W-Wait, I know you! You're the one that was in the infirmary with the naked nurse!" Jaune suddenly shouted, his teammates   
slowly turned around to look at him and lowered their weapons, even Nora, who just stood up, couldn't help but look at him   
weirdly, "I...Thought you only dreamt that?" Pyrrha asked with a confused expression, "No no! I'm sure! It's him!" He   
said, pointing at Jotaro, who raised an eyebrow at this, "Oh, you're that kid that almost fainted that day" Jotaro stated,   
the other two figures approached Jotaro, stopping right behind him, "Still does not explain how you four got here" Kakyoin   
said with a suspicious expression, the other three figures visibly dissapeared as soon as they appeared.  
"My fault, my fault" Nora raised her arms in the air, and awkwardly laughed, "I just...Thought this place was abandoned,   
and was like a spooky ghost house!"

* * *

 

 

It took a while for the Stand Users to get truly convinced they meant no harm, but in the end they gave in and trusted   
them, "Still, if any of you dare to mention the existance of this place to anyone, we'll personally come to kick your   
asses" Jotaro firmly stated with a finger pointed at them, Polnareff and Kakyoin nodded in approval, Team JNPR promptly   
backed away, "Message recieved" Ren slowly said, they had a whole lot of questions, but now was not the time to ask them.   
Before they could even back away, a small light filled up a corner of the bedroom, on one of the beds layed a ringing   
Scroll, Pyrrha was the only one to turn around and see what was on the screen, before Polnareff ran over to the Scroll and   
grabbed it, on the screen it read 'Ruby Rose Is Calling".  
"W..Well, see you later!" Jaune said, before patting Pyrrha on the shoulder as if to say 'Let's go!', and they promptly   
walked out. Pyrrha looked back for a second before leaving the buildind, it was definetly mysterious, she decided upon   
herself that, at a later date, she would discover more about this.

Jotaro took a sigh of relief, and Polnareff handed him his Scroll. "What is it?" he bluntly asked as soon as he answered   
the call. "Oh, Jotaro! We found out that that Horse guy is conscious! How about we all give him a visit? He could give out   
some information" Ruby said, Jotaro thought about it for a second, all in all, Hol Horse was the only one that would give   
them any answers, two of the assasins were probably loyal White Fang members, and the other one was brainwashed and   
possibly does not remember anything, "Alright, we'll arrive there as soon as possible" he said, and rudely hung up before   
she could say another word, "Alright," he started, looking at his friends "Let's go."  
It didn't exactly take long to arrive to Vale's hospital, the harder part was getting the receptionist to allow them to   
visit him. After a lot of arguing, he gave in and allowed them to go to Hol Horse's room, where Team RWBY was already   
residing. Hol Horse was laying on the bed, his shoulder bandaged, and even his legs were wrapped up, it's possible that   
due to the force of the impact, he broke some bones as well, he was obviously scared crapless of the four girls sitting   
around him, but when Jotaro and the others walked in, he let out a shriek, "A-AAAAH! WHAT ARE YOU THREE DOING HERE?!" he   
screamed out, it was soloud that Ruby had to stand up and cover his mouth with both hands in order to not cause suspicions   
among the hospital staff outside, after he calmed down, and after nearly suffocating him, Ruby sat back down, allowing   
Jotaro to do his questions.  
"I'll just ask this straight up, where the hell is Dio?" Jotaro said, walking over to him with his hands inside his   
pockets, "D-Dio..? I-I have no idea!" he shouted, Jotaro walked right beside him, an arm of Star Platinum appearing beside   
him, "A-Aah! I really have no idea! B-But I do know something!" Hol Horse was now uselessly struggling and trying to back   
away, only hurting himself by doing so, "Start talking then, or we'll be taking turns on you, on who beats the shit out of   
you, that is.", with all those eyes turned towards him, he stopped struggling and gulped, "D-Dio's not working alone!   
There's this...Weird group, I bet he's not even in full command anymore!" he started, the expressions of the Stand Users   
showed they were very much confused, "Wait, you mean there's someone else ABOVE Dio now?" Polnareff asked, in disbelief,   
there was no way Dio would properly work under the command of someone else other than himself, "I-It's true, believe me!   
When I arrived here, there was this...Creepy red-wearing woman, she told me she knew that I worked for Dio, and that she'd   
be happy to pay me if I started stealing this Dust thing along with those other criminals!"  
"The only other thing I know is...The one who somehow brought us all here is working with Dio!"

[To Be Continued]-->


	20. R.E.M

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, this one is probably the biggest chapter yet!  
> Also, keep reading untill the end notes, I have an announcement

"Once more" Salem ordered, arms crossed behind her back as she observed Dio, standing in the middle of the room. "T-The World!" the  
wounded vampire shouted, like it took all his strength just to say it, and in the blink of an eye...Nothing happened, a few seconds of  
silence passed, Dio gritted his teeth and clutched his hands in pure fury, all power, all his strenght, gone, due to the great wound  
dividing him in half, he couldn't even properly summon his own Stand.  
It was shameful, infuriating, it was below him to be this weak. He turned around towards Salem with bloodshot eyes, alongside her were  
two of her most trusted conspirators: Hazel, Doctor Watts. "You see? He's completely and utterly useless, that blasted idiot brought  
us a faulty tool" Watts commented, Dio bared his fangs, his anger was boiling his undead blood, he hated the fact he had to be under  
the orders of anyone and be ridiculed like that, but unfortunately, for once in his life, he had to swallow his pride whole.

"Now now, there's no need to be so malicious against our newest member, Doctor Watts" Salem calmly stated, and turned towards Dio once  
more, taking a few steps towards him, "As you requested, we found a suitable hiding place where you can safely recover and  
gain...Sustenance, I would assume that once you re-gain your full power, you'll fully support our cause." her unnatural eyes stared  
straight at the vampire, Dio felt like going on a rampage just from how much embarassment he had to endure, but he couldn't. He didn't  
know how powerful were these people, and that woman...Even he couldn't help but wonder how powerful she actually was, he had to slowly  
nod and agree like a plebian, for now. Salem smiled satisfied and turned around towards the other two, "Hazel, Watts, go and come in  
contact the Stand Users willing to join us, and if they aren't willing...Well, convince them, as always." she firmly ordered, Hazel  
grunted and slowly nodded, turning around and walking away, Watts scoffed a bit, but nodded, "Very well, my Lady." he said, following  
Hazel.

Dio walked through the barely lit hallways of Salem's sanctuary, this would have been the last day there, and he wouldn't have been  
more glad, he hadn't tasted blood in a while either. He stopped as he saw a figure standing near one end of the hallway, it was a man  
that looked to be on his mid twenties with a bush of ginger-coloured hair, laying his back near the closed, giant door staring at Dio,  
wearing an expression that didn't give away much about what he was thinking or feeling. Dio knew him well, after all, he was the one  
who brought him in this world, Dio once more said nothing and tried to walk past him, but it was obvious he was going to start  
talking, "Mister Brando, I came here to inform you that yet another Stand User has failed" the man said in a very polite manner, Dio  
growled, "Don't bother me with such details, inform me when the Joestar's group has been wiped out, the group that you summoned." Dio  
replied with a salty tone.  
"Side effects, they're just side effects" The man was quick to say, now staring at the other end of the hallway instead of Dio, "I  
believe I told you, along with the 'two things' I can bring to this world, it is very much possible that fate could bring some  
other...Unexpected visitors on both worlds, and it happened. But isn't it a good thing? You can finally enact your revenge."  
Dio was very displeased at those words, but didn't wish to add anything more, his thirst for blood was getting higher by the second,  
just as he was about to leave, he heard a phantom giggle, and a sudden voice, "Poor poor Dio, the once immortal vampire is now weaker  
than a human." Another giggle, he turned around angrily, trying to see what was happening, the ginger-haired man crossed his arms with  
a stoic expression still on, "Oh, that's right, due to your wound, you are 'Stand Blind', you can only percieve, but cannot see my  
Stand."  
Another juvenile laugh, "Hehehe, how do you hope to defeat Jotaro now, uuuh? You can't even see Stands, you'll just get beaten to a  
pulp again!" the man sighed as the Stand he only could see talked, Dio's divided face was red with anger, "I beg of you, please  
forgive me, I can't...Quite control what my Stand will say, I hope you understand"

Dio gritted his teeth and walked away, the door loudly shutting down behind him, the ginger sighed and looked up, "Oops, was I too  
mean to the poor old vampire?" his Stand stated, "Do not worry, this just proved how little of a threat he is...For now. We got  
ourself in quite the bad situation, haven't we?" he said, scratching his slight beard while musing over this.

* * *

 

The group left the hospital with more questions than before, Hol Horse unfortunately passed out from sheer fear and the nurses had to  
walk in, forcing them to walk out of the hospital. "So, what do we do now, our only lead...Kinda just passed out." Ruby said, facing  
the three Stand Users.  
"Simple, we don't do anything" He answered  
"Uh? What do you mean we don't do anything?" Blake asked, blinking a few times  
"Yeah! Do you just want to give up like that?" Yang continued  
All of Team RWBY looked at him rather surprised  
Jotaro sighed, "Fine, let me rephrase that: We don't do anything for now, the Headmaster's informants are our only hope of gaining any  
informations right now, so we just have to hold off and wait, and be on our guard, but at least we know that someone brought us here."  
After he precised that, the others nodded in understandment.  
They all started walking back towards their dormitories, but as they did, Jotaro suddenly stoped in his tracks, seeming distracted by  
something, as he thought what could possibly be bothering him, Ruby's voice snapped him back to reality: "Heey! Jotaro!" she shouted  
looking back towards him, he shook his head and started walking again, but he couldn't shake off the feeling untill he managed to go  
back to the hidden dormitory.

The weekend passed in an uneventful way, and Ozpin kept his promise on increasing security, now there were a lot more guards inside  
and near the school grounds, they weren't Huntsmen or Huntresses, but Ozpin assured the students that they would have been more than  
enough to deal with any 'strange accidents' that might happen inside the Academy, however the Stand Users still weren't going to  
class, or in Polnareff's case, to work. For this exact reason there weren't many chances for Team RWBY and them to hang out, and so  
began to pass time with another team.  
"I'm still surprised THE Pyrrha Nikos would start hanging out with a random team" Blake said, Pyrrha laughed a bit, "Why's that? I see  
no reason why we shouldn't start knowing our fellow gurdians-in-training" she replied, they didn't exactly know how this situation  
happened, but Team RWBY and Team JNPR began hanging out after the weekend ended, the teams went along great, like they were meant to  
be friends from the beginning. Well, Pyrrha couldn't say that the incident in the hidden shack didn't influence her decision to  
approach the team in the first place, but hers was pure and simple curiosity., but  
They were sitting around one of the large tables of the almost completely empty school's library, sure, they were supposed to study,  
but why should they not take this chance to get to know eachother better? But of course Team RWBY didn't mention anything about the  
Stand Users or the attacks made on them.  
"You know..." Weiss started, looking around, "It's...pretty strange that the school's library would be so empty, there's no one else  
here beside of us." as she said that, the other seven began noticing it too, "Wait, does anybody know what time is it?" Jaune asked,  
at that question Ruby instinctivelly grabbed hold of her Scroll, and turned it on, but...something was off: As the screen lit up, the  
time displayed was...  
00:00

"U-Uh?" Ruby was very confused at this, was there something wrong with her S,croll? Or was it really midnight? No, it couldn't be, it  
was barely evening when they went in! Jaune leaned on the table curious, and so did the rest of Team JNPR, "Well...?" Pyrrha asked,  
Weiss, who was sitting right next to Ruby, leaned in to look at the screen, she raised an eyebrow and looked through her own Scroll,  
and it too said 00:00, and promptly Blake and Yang checked too, it was still 00:00, completely unchanging, "Uh, guys, you're kind of  
freaking me out here, what's with those surprised faces?"  
Everyone suddenly felt a shiver slithering up their spines, and a sudden voice filled the room, loud enough that all eight could hear  
it, but soft as a whisper: "It's very simple...You are all in a collective dream."  
Before they could even react, a humanoid figure suddenly fell from the ceiling and landed at the center of the table, making most of  
the Huntsmen and Huntresses in the room yelp or gasp in surprise. The figure was nothing short of unreal, its body wasa regal golden  
in color, but most of the body was covered by giant golden rings with strange markings drawn on them, the humanoid wearing them like  
an armor, the only parts free of them being the hands, feet, and the smiling mouth, "W-What the hell is this thing?!" Jaune couldn't  
help but yell, he had never seen something like it in his life, even the usually calm and collected Ren had his eyes wide in shock.

"My my, how rude." the humanoid said in the whispering tone, standing on top of the large oval-shaped table and looking down at  
Jaune...possibly, it was hard to tell due to the eyes being covered, after passing the first shock, it was obvious to Team RWBY on  
what the thing was, "A-A Stand?!" they all yelled at the same time, making Team JNPR even more confused about the situation, "W-  
Wait...collective dream?" Ren asked, and the Stand's head immediatly turned towards him, the golden lips curving into a smile,  
"Indeed, allow me to introduce myself," the Stand started,moving an arm to point at itself, the rings jingling as it moved, "I am  
'R.E.M', or better put, the Stand User of R.E.M talking through it, and simply put..." R.E.M turned towards Ruby, "I'm here to kill  
you" it said, pointing one of the fingers towards her. Everyone just stared in shock...except Yang, who stood up and sent an uppercut  
towards the Stand, it didn't even try to move as the fist came close, and completely phased through it, "Oh, trying to hit a Stand  
with your bare hands, without your Aura-infused weapons? A brave effort, though useless." the Stand whispered, and laughed softly,  
Yang gritted her teeth and kept trying to hit it, but all hits phased through. "Now, unfortunately, I can't kill you all right now,  
you all can not attack me, but I can not attack you either, it is quite annoying."

Even Pyrrha couldn't help but feel threatened by this, "T...Then how do you plan to kill us?" she slowly asked, R.E.M turned their  
head towards her as Yang kept throwing punches at them, "Glad you asked."  
The Stand jumped backwards, and landed on one end of the table on all fours, like a cat, the rings jingling madly as it did so, "But  
first, it's fair to explain the 'rules': You all will have to endure my puzzles, if you don't manage to solve them, you'll all wake  
up...And experience a painful death. If you manage to solve them, much to my despair, you'll all be able to leave, and I won't be able  
to trap you all in this dream anymore."  
"P-Puzzles?" Ruby repeated, and soon after R.E.M took one of the rings hanging from its arm, and threw it at the center of the table,  
"Good luck, I'll be watching.", and with just that, R.E.M jumped off the table and crawled away on their arms and legs, behind the  
bookcases of the dream library.  
"So....what do we do now?" Weiss asked, looking at the ring, "That Stand said we need to solve a puzzle, but this does not look like a  
puzzle to me." as she said that, Ruby leaned in, and poked the giant golden ring with a finger, and suddenly, it began to spin on  
itself!  
"W-What did you do?!" Jaune asked as the thing kept spinning, "I-I don't know!" Ruby quickly said, all eight of the students looked  
confused at the ring that kept spinning, the markings on it suddenly lighting up, and then stopped, four markings remaining lit up,  
one at south of the ring, one at north, one at east, and one in at west. And, suddenly, in the blink of an eye, four other rings  
appeared, attached to the points were the markings were lit up, and in another second, another one appeared, laying on top of the  
four, creating an unnatural cube of rings, all of them with inner, smaller rings inside them.  
"I think that's the puzzle." Blake simply stated

* * *

 

The group took about ten minutes analyizing the puzzle, and what they understood was: The four outer rings all displayed the same  
markings, numbers that went from one through eleven, however, each side's inner rings all had different markings, or so it seemed at  
first, but in reality, the markings were the mirrored or upside down versions of the circles behind them, meaning that the inner  
markings of the east ring were the mirrored version of the markings of the west ring, and vice-versa. The inner markings were of  
various kinds, each side having different types of them, the north and south sides had symbols of various elements, fires, drops of  
water, thunders, and so on; the west and east sides had markings of tools and weapons: hammers, knives, bows, arrows, swords, and so  
on; the final fifth and sixth rings had the markings of various animals and plants, they were, in order: A sunflower, a rabbit, a  
wolf, a human, a deer, an elephant, a monkey, and a couple of other plants. None of the markings seemed to repeat, excluding the  
mirrored versions.

Pyrrha ran her hand along one of the outer ring's borders, and was surprised to see that it moved quite easily, spinning around  
slightly, even without any sort of hinges keeping the rings together. "So, uh, what are we supposed to do?" Ruby asked at a complete  
loss, Blake took a closer look at the puzzle, and stated: "I think I've seen this kind of puzzles, though never this complicated, I  
assume that you need to spin the inner and outer circles around, untill you have the correct combination, and then...something will  
happen."  
Ruby's eyes lit up at this, "Oh, then that's easy! We just have to spin them around untill we get the right combination!" she happpily  
exclaimed, but Pyrrha sighed as she stared at the cube, her expression grim "It's probably not that easy, there are about are eleven  
numbers on each outer ring, and about a dozen of markings in the inner ones, and assuming they all need to be correct at the same time  
the combinations are way too many, and we don't even know how much time we have."  
Ruby's smile dropped, she was right, they didn't know at all how much time they had to solve this puzzle, and puzzles should usually  
have clues! "This is so unfair..." she said, dropping on the chair.  
Suddenly, Ren stood up and started walking away from the table, Nora quickly noticed it and followed him, "R-Ren! Where are you  
going?!" she shouted at him, but he didn't stop, untill he was right in front of one of the bookcases, staring at the books, "W-What  
are you....Oh." Nora too turned around, and for a while stared at the books, the six looked at them confused, untill Ren turned his  
head to look at them, "Guys, these books...They're all the same, I think it's some sort of clue."

Ren dropped the small yellow book on the table near the puzzle, the cover was completely wordless, the only thing on there was a close  
up of R.E.M's face, looking forward, the teams leaned in, curious, and Ren slowly opened the book, and already something could be  
noticed, the first page had 30:44 written on it, a second later, the numbers twisted and turned into 30:43, and it kept going like  
this, "I-It's...A timer, on the book." Blake said, in a tone that made it obvious she couldn't believe her eyes, it was painfully  
obvious on what the timer stood for, if the timer ran up, they would have lost. Ren took a deep breath, and slowly turned page, on it  
was written:

"There once was a single family, living in the woods, the family consisted of six people: The mother, the father, the twin brothers  
and the twin sisters. They lived happily in the woods, undisturbed by the civilized world, the sisters walked in the fields and  
gathered sunflowers, always keeping one to themselves, but always gave two to their parents. The brothers worked with the father,  
lighting up the two campfires and getting the seven buckets of water each day, and hunted the deers in the woods with their two trusty  
bows. Altough they were equal in everything but personality, the second brother had much envy for the first brother, an unjustifiable  
envy, that led him, in one cold night, to run out of house into the dark woods beyond, and when he did, he stumbled upon a strange  
mirror, left in the middle of the woods, in curiosity the young boy reached out his hand to touch the mirror, and when he did, he was  
found himself in a similiar, yet different place, the greenery of the forest was replaced with the white of snow, as the young boy  
walked around the white woods, ten great wolves appeared behind him, the scared boy ran away at full speed, and as he ran blindly he  
found himself at his home, but it wasn't truly his home, it was more grey, and had a tint of sadness in it. The two campfires were  
replaced by mounds of snow, and, as he walked towards the door, he saw two mounds of earths near the house, on both layed two withered  
herbs that once must have been flowers, the boy knocked on the door, but no one answered. The boy slowly opened the door, and saw a  
gloomy interior, ten rusted daggers layed on the floor, the four persons sitting around the table looked more like skeletons than  
anything, two adults and two little girls, the boy got scared once more, grabbed one of the daggers and a hammer placed carelessly on  
the ground, and ran once more.  
In the end, the boy found the mirror again, after what felt like a day of walking around in the snow, he quickly came back to the  
green world, ran back to his house, and hugged his brother, sisters, and parents thightly. The End"

Ruby stared at the book blankly, "T...That didn't make a lot of sense, did it?" she asked, "Yeah, it kinda felt like it was written in  
a few minutes, without any thought. What a bad fairy tale." Yang said. Weiss sighed, looking at the two half sisters with a  
dissapointed look, "It's the solution, you klutses!"

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: I'm going to be honest here, I think I can speak for many fanfiction writers when I say that comments are THE most important way to see if people are enjoying it. So, please, if you're enjoying this fic, tell me why. Or even better, if you have constructive criticism i'll greatly appreciate it. This is not to say I don't appreciate the words of the ones who already commented, but, even though i'll probably sound greedy, I just wish there were more
> 
> N.2: This puzzle was hell to write, and not for the obvious reasons. The readers with a sharper mind might have already understood what might happen next week.


	21. R.E.M Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for this being a bit shorter than the previous chapter, but I am making some progress on the average chapter lenght.

Pyrrha turned the book around and examined the objectively bad fairy tale, a smile on her face, "This puzzle is much easier than I thought." she stated, looking back at the cube, and leaned closer to it. Blake crossed her arms and looked at the book suspiciously "Is nobody else questioning why the enemy is giving us such a blatant solution to the puzzle they created?"

Ruby simply patted her on the shoulder and smiled, "Who cares? It's their loss!" she shouts happily, Blake looks down and sighs, apparently being the only one to question this, all of them seemed too happy to see the solution right in front of them.  
"Alright, alright, so, what should we do?" Jaune asked, looking expectantly at Pyrrha, as if awaiting orders. The redhead approached the cube and slowly started rotating the top outer circle, "Well, we just need to combine the numbers with the objects, so for example, there'd be six humans here..." She rotated the ring until the six was aligned with the human figure, "And for the mirrored ones, we just need to put what was in the 'mirror world' inside the story!" she stated, putting her hands inside one of the ring's holes in order to rotate the bottom ring, it was tricky, but she did it, "And that should be pretty much it!" she finished explaining.  
"Alright, makes sense, let's do it!" Yang shouted, and not before long, the eight started to spin the rings around so that they could align with the numbers with their respective markings.

However, it didn't take long before everyone started to notice that something indeed was very wrong. "Wait...Wait just a second..." Weiss leaned closer and looked at the top ring, she then grabbed the book and re-read the story. "The story says that the twins picked three sunflowers, right? Then...something is very wrong here!" she shouted, and indeed as she spoke, while the six was on the human, it was the four that was in the sunflower!

Pyrrha's face suddenly contorted in horror at this revelation, "B-But...If that's the case, then that means that in order for the three to be on the sunflower, the five has to be on the human!" Either way, something would have been on the wrong number, she shook her head, "No no no, there has to be something we're doing wrong here, that can't be, if that's the case this puzzle would be completely impossible!"

Pyrrha stood up and started spinning the ring around and around, but it was completely useless, no matter what she would do or in which way she would turn, at least one number would have been in the wrong spot, even she, the ace student, couldn't help feeling panicked in such a situation. Ruby's heart started beating faster inside her chest, but was it a real feeling? Yes, even though it was a dream, that feeling of fear was definitely real, she looked at the east side of the cube, and too started to spin the ring frantically without thought, spinning the wheel incredibly quickly, all at once most of them, excluding Ren and Blake started to spin all sides of the ring at once, their arms becoming an entangled and frantic mess.

Ten minutes of horrible frustration passed until the Beacon students started to give up one by one, Nora threw her head back and stated what everyone had in mind, "It's impossible!"  
Ren tightened one of his hands into a fist, and said nothing, instead he grabbed the book, still open on the fairy tale, and turned back on the Timer page, to add salt to injury the number 'displayed' on the page was 10:24, and it was rapidly going down, Jaune, who was the one panicking the most, looked at the page and his eyes went wide, "We're screwed! We only got ten minutes left!" He stood up, hands in his hair, "Why is this happening to us?! A-And why does that thing want to kill us?! Why does it want to kill YOU?!" He shouted, a finger pointed towards Ruby, who was sitting at the other side of the table, she had no idea on how to respond, why were they targeting her, out of everyone there?

There was no time to even try to answer his questions, Pyrrha stood up, and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Calm down, Jaune, I don’t know why, but...I feel there must be a solution here.” she said in a reassuring voice.  
While Pyrrha kept trying to calm him down, the rest tried to possibly think on how they could get out of this situation, spinning the rings was completely pointless, and since it was a dream walking out of the library would have been completely useless, beating the Stand was out of the question, so the only way was to beat the puzzle, but how? Ren looked at the book displaying the countdown, and closed it down, when he did that, he noticed that R.E.M changed expression, and was now showing a grin, showing off the golden sharp teeth, “Ugh...” in frustration, Ren threw the book across the room, it fell on the ground with a thud, good thing that gravity works even in dreams.

The pressure was extremely high, so much so that Yang too couldn’t take it any more, “Screw this stupid piece of junk!” she yelled out as she drew her fist down on the box, the puzzle didn’t even budge at the hard hit, like it was bolted down onto the table, which it was obviously not, however, thanks to this, Pyrrha’s eyes saw something strange: the box didn’t move, however, the numbers in the outer rings did! She ruffled Jaune’s already messy hair as he finally calmed down, nobody seemed to have noticed the detail except her, she leaned closer to the puzzle and looked at the top ring once more, so close her nose almost touched the surface, “H-Huh? Pyrrha, what are you doing?” Jaune asked, confused on what she was doing while the others were growing increasingly more tense.

 And there it was, the thing that they didn’t notice before: Between each numbers in the outer ring there were small, almost imperceptible cracks. She tried to put her gloved fingers inside the cracks out of curiosity, and to her surprise realized that despite how small they were, they would slide in quite easily, instinctively she tightened her grip and pulled out the number, earning a shock of surprise from pretty much everyone. She looked at was in her hand and held it high up, a perfect rectangle with a six drawn on it, she looked back at the ring, and noticed that a hole remained instead of the six she pulled out. And then she started laughing.

“Pyrrha? W-Why are you laughing?” Ruby asked, even her own team looked at her wide-eyed, they never saw her laughing so much for seemingly no reason, what felt like half of a minute passed before her laugh quieted down, “Sorry, sorry! I just can’t believe I...Or better, we didn’t realize this sooner!” she shouted, showing off the rectangle to the others, “The spinning is a red herring! What we actually were supposed to do...was this!” she exclaimed, and quickly placed the rectangle on top of the human-shaped marking. Instantly the number started to glow with a blue hue. “Are you kidding me?” Yang said, with a not-too-amused expression on her face.  
“But what about the sides? Even if we put it there it’ll just fall off...” Nora said, and quickly Pyrrha replied: “Well, we’re eight, right? So we can just hold onto the rectangles until all are in place!”

They couldn’t know how much time remained, thanks to Ren throwing away one of the many books, and in all honestly they couldn’t care less, they re-told the story quickly to each other so that they couldn’t forget the solutions, and slowly placed the numbers on top of the markings. Like the first time, the numbers began glowing blue as they did so, and finally, when all of the stones went in position, a _click_ was heard by everyone in the room, and suddenly the puzzle started to fall apart, the rings detaching from each other and falling on the table with a clank, and as it happened, nobody could even say anything before their eyelids felt heavy, and everything went dark.

* * *

 

“U-Uugh...” Ruby whined as she opened her eyes, she quickly came to realize she was surrounded by people looking concerned at her, they were fellow students, probably wondering how they all managed to sleep for so long. She slowly turned her head around, and saw that the others too were waking up, “W-We’re fine, we’re fine” Ruby quickly said, avoiding the gazes of the curious students. Her eyes slowly trailed towards the door, and noticed that someone was peeking inside, a young man in a bright golden vest was looking at them with a frown on his face, as soon as their eyes met, the man quickly started to run away!

Yang, who noticed him too, was the first one to stand up and to follow after him, even after just waking up she was already full of energy, “Get back here!” she shouted, avoiding the students and running out of the library. Even the usually peppy and energetic Nora had her face planted on to the table, whining unintelligibly, “Let’s just leave that to her.” Blake simply stated, slight shadows under her eyes.

It didn’t take long for Yang to capture the rather physically unfit man, he tried to run into one of the storage rooms of the library, which only led him into a dead end, Yang quickly threw a jab at his stomach, sending him flying towards a bunch of empty boxes, “A-Ah...” the man whined, but didn’t even attempt at moving, simply staring up towards Yang, “C-Congratulations for clearing my puzzle, but there’s no real need to hit me right now, my Stand can’t affect someone twice...” he whispered, but Yang simply smiled and closed off the door, slowly approaching him inside the dark room, “Oh, don’t worry, I have no intentions of knocking you out...Yet, first….” she cracked her knuckles, “You better tell me what you know.”  
“W-What do you mean by tha-” his question was interrupted by her foot pressing against his stomach, “Don’t play dumb! You know what I want to know! Why were you targeting my little sister?! Are you one of the Stand Users that work for Dio?!” she shouted, with a face that clearly showed her anger.  
The Stand User gasped for air, “It..was not my idea” he started, and her foot ever-so-slightly pressed less against him, “I know who Dio is...But I don’t work for him, I only serve The Door, he was the one who told me who was my target, I simply followed orders”

Yang raised an eyebrow, her expression confused as her foot dropped to the ground “The Door?” she repeated. The Stand User didn’t attempt to stand up, and instead simply nodded, “The Door is the one that brought this power in this world, he was the one who told us on how to use our newly awakened powers, he was the one who brought the ‘Arrow’ in this world.”  
This all sounded like complete nonsense to Yang, “Oh yeah? And who’s this ‘Door’?” she asked, looking down at him, the Stand User smiled and whispered: “I will not tell you anything more, I have a deep respect for The Door, he was the one who awakened our hidden powers and told us how to use them, I’ll not betray him.”

Yang sighed, knowing she got all she could out of him, and swiftly kicked him directly in the face.

After all of this, Team RWBY and Team JNPR met once again in Team RWBY’s dormitory room. Ruby and the others had no other choice than to explain the situation to Team JNPR, about Stands and Jotaro’s group, and how they’ve been attacked by assassins. After they were done, Jaune looked at the ground, “This...is a bit hard to believe, but after experiencing that I don’t think any of us can have any doubts” he said, and looked around to look at his teammates, who nodded in agreement.

“Oh! I forgot, what did he say to you before you knocked him out, Yang?” Ruby asked, looking up at her big sister. “Just a whole lot of weird stuff, he talked about working for a Door guy, and how he brought some sort of arrow in this world” She replied in a tone that clearly showed her disinterest, Blake looked down in thought, “Well, it’s possible that whoever this ‘Door’ is, he could be the one that brought Jotaro, Polnareff and Kakyoin in Remnant” she observed, the rest of the team nodded, showing they were thinking the same. “We should probably call Jotaro and the others, in order to inform them, and we can introduce you too.” Ruby added, looking at Team JNPR.  
Pyrrha shook her head “O-Oh, I don’t think there’ll be any need for introductions.”

* * *

 

Qrow looked over the young man sleeping on the bed of the inn. Even some small villages had the fortune of having some doctors in them, and they usually operated in specific inn rooms, “Is he alright?” he asked, his voice as raspy as ever, the old woman stood beside him and nodded, “Yes, yes, now he’s completely fine, it’s surprising, even though completely lacking an Aura the wounds healed very quickly, I didn’t really have to do much.” the woman smiled, “He has an incredible force of will, despite his wounds he didn’t pass out until we had to remove the wood.”  
“Did he tell you his name?” Qrow asked, the old doctor nodded, “He kept blabbering about having to ‘go back’ to somewhere, but he also said his name was...” she looked up, trying to remember, “Josuke, I think. He’s obviously not from Vale, that’s for sure.”

Qrow looked directly at Josuke’s face, a complete lack of Aura, and a pretty strange name, at this point he was almost sure that he was a Stand User, “When will he wake up?” he simply asked, arms crossed. The old doctor smiled at him “Oh, he’ll be out of here in two days at most, you can be sure of that.”  
Qrow’s expression grew a bit distant at the thought of bringing this boy to Beacon, he didn’t plan on coming back to Beacon at least until the Vytal Festival, but the thought of seeing Ruby and Yang again made him smile. “I have to ask...” the doctor looked up at him, “Why would a Huntsman such as yourself be interested with a kid with no known family or friends?”

“Well,” Qrow started, “Let’s just say this is a Beacon matter.”

 [To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Due to getting a new text editor, this chapter was a bit of a pain to edit and post correctly, if there are any strange formatting issues with this chapter be sure to let me know.


	22. Cleanup

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, despite this being kind of a sickly week, I managed to finish this chapter anway, have fun.

The sun was starting to set, and an evening breeze was in the air, the Stand Users that day decided to take a walk around the commercial district of Vale, mostly because Kakyoin had a sudden idea, they walked around the district for a while in search for a Dust Shop, but all of the ones they found were closed or completely desolated, probably robbed and then destroyed. “Oh, come on Kakyoin, why did you bring us all they way here to the other side of the damn city? What’s the big plan?” Polnareff asked, Kakyoin brought a hand on his chin and smiled, “The classes are Beacon about Dust usage gave me an idea, Dust is used for basically everything in this world: fuel, electricity, bullets, and just straight up supernatural things. So I thought: What if we somehow managed to combine our Stands with Dust, resulting in new techniques we haven’t even thought of before?”

Polnareff looked at him with a face that clearly showed that he didn’t think any of this would work, “Like how?” he instigated, Kakyoin’s smile didn’t falter, and he kept explaining, “Weiss’s weapon is a reaper just like your Silver Chariot, right? Well, you saw what that weapon could do, it even pierced through your armor. So why shouldn’t it work on our Stands too?”  
Polnareff thought about it for a second, “So, you’re basically saying we should artificially upgrade our Stands, right?”  
Kakyoin nodded, “Well, it wouldn’t hurt to make an experiment, right? Imagine your Silver Chariot’s reaper being infused with lightning, or Star Platinum’s fists being enveloped in fire! It would be pretty cool, right Jotaro?” Kakyoin looked over at Jotaro...Or better, he would have, but Jotaro was nowhere to be seen.  
“Huh? Jotaro? Where are you?” Kakyoin looked around, but there was no sign of Jotaro anywhere to be seen in the mostly desolated street, Kakyoin had his mouth open agape, at a loss for words. “Did he just ditch us?!” Polnareff shouted, Kakyoin scratched the side of his head in thought, “No, no, that can’t be, he wouldn’t just leave with no reason, and without even telling us! So, maybe...” “He’s under attack!” Polnareff finished off Kakyoin’s phrase. Kakyoin started walking back and forth in front of Polnareff, thinking, “It’s possible, but...Where could he be? There’s nowhere in this street where an assassin could have attacked him without anyone knowing.”  
Just as he finished saying that, he suddenly noticed that the street was suddenly filling up with people, who mostly just ignore the two and kept walking, some of them entering the shops, Polnareff signed at Kakyoin to split up, Kakyoin nodded as people walked around him, and both of them began running at opposites sides of the street.

* * *

 

Jotaro felt his body being pulled downwards, and not before long he slammed on the ground, he felt his consciousness slip, and all went dark.  
Now he felt a...strange odor, it smelled like spoiled eggs and feces, not a very pleasant odor, his body felt like it was going to pass out once more, if it weren’t for a sudden scream: “P-Please, wake up!” a desperate-sounding female voice he didn’t recognize rang in his ears, he slowly opened his eyes to see a young girl that looked on the verge of tears, and an unfamiliar surrounding, “Where the hell am I?” He asked, almost to himself, as he tried to stand up, his back was laying on a sticky brick wall. “A-Ah! Finally, you’re awake!” the young girl, that looked to be no more than fourteen, stated, wiping away the tears from the edges of her eyes.

Jotaro didn’t reply as he looked around, and he understood where that awful smell came from.  
They were inside a sewer.

With his usual expression, he looked down at the girl, “All right, what’s happening here?” he bluntly asked, the girl, feeling a bit intimidated, stepped back a little “I-I don’t know! T-There’s something weird with this street and this sewer!” the girl looked very nervous, and very pale too. “Good grief, calm down. First of all, how did you get here?” Jotaro asked, the girl slowly took a deep breath, “A-As I said, I don’t know! I was walking down the ‘cursed street’ alone, and a second later I found myself here! It’s been an hour, and I still haven’t found an exit!” tears started to flow out of her eyes again. Jotaro raised an eyebrow, repeating “Cursed street?”, the girl slowly nodded, “S-Some lame rumor that said if you walked that street alone at night, you would suddenly vanish and nobody would hear from you again! I think I heard that five people dissapeared on this street in the past few weeks”

_Considering we’re here, I don’t think it could be considered lame_ Jotaro thought to himself, and turned around, indeed there weren’t any exits or ladders around, Jotaro placed his bruised hands inside the stained white uniform’s pockets, and silently started to walk away, “H-Hey! Don’t leave me here!” the girl shouted, and ran after him.

The sewers were dark and humid, and also seemingly endless, after each turn there simply was more of it, and no exit in sight, Jotaro tried to use his Scroll while walking, but for some reason he simply couldn’t find it, “Hey, you, do you have a scroll?” he asked, turning back to look at her, she shook her head, “N-No, I had it before, but then it just suddenly vanished when I came down here, it’s like this place’s cursed...”  
Jotaro pushed the tip of his hat over his eyes and muttered something unintelligible, and then just kept on walking inside the dank sewer, his feet splashing against the green water. They’ve been walking for ten minutes, and yet it felt like forever, the sewer was built like a maze, and there were no exits anywhere, it was unreal, and then when boredom started to set in, both of them heard a strange noise.  
Splish, splash, splish, splash, it was like the sound of something jumping up and down in shallow water, the girl felt a sudden fear and hid behind Jotaro’s much bigger body, “W-What was that?!” she shouted, her body trembling, “How should I know?” he answered with his usual unnatural calm, and kept walking, “i-I wish I had your bravery...” the little girl muttered and kept following.  
Another turn to the left, and the splashing got louder, Jotaro did not seem bothered at all, and pressed on, the sounds got louder and closer, until...He found himself in front of a brick wall, no grates, no exits, nothing, just a mossy brick wall.

Jotaro raised an eyebrow a bit, as the girl said out loud what he was thinking, “A...Dead end?”

Jotaro got closer to the wall, and placed a hand on it, running his hand along it, it seemed like a completely regular wall, and yet...Jotaro could feel there was something wrong with it, as he did so the splashing stopped, only to be replaced by another, more ominous sound: crick, crack, crick, crack. It was like something was chewing on something hard, or bones breaking. The girl shivered in fear, Jotaro shook his head and kept examining the brick wall, he suddenly noticed something out of the corner of his eyes, a rectangle-shaped part of the wall was visibly darker than the rest, he kneeled down, and placed his hand at the center of the blacked out area, he instinctively pushed his hand forwards, and the bricks quickly fell to the ground, revealing a hole to the other side, “A-A secret passage in a sewer?” the girl approached the hole and tried to look at the other side, but it was way too dark to notice anything.

Crunch, crunch, crunch, the little girl crawled away and with a fearful expression, indicating at Jotaro to walk in first, _Of course_ he thought, and started to squeeze inside the hole, it was by no means an easy task considering his size, but fortunately he managed to pass after a few minutes of struggling. As his eyes adapted to the even deeper darkness of the hidden passage, he saw...It was another stretch of the sewer, Jotaro couldn’t explain to himself on why it was walled off to the rest, he looked around for a few moments, before signing at her to pass.

_**Crunch, crunch, crunch.** _

The noise was getting even closer as they both walked inside the straight tunnel, “A-Are we sure this is such a great idea, Mister?” she asked, Jotaro continued walking, and replied: “If you don’t think it’s such a great idea, you can always turn back.”  
The girl looked down and said nothing, and simply kept following him. After another turn, Jotaro saw...Another dead end, and after a quick examination, this one didn’t seem to have any secret passages at all, but more importantly, he found hole on one of the side walls, not a clean rectangle-shaped hole like before, it looked more like a hole something very big just smashed through, it certainly didn’t bode well.

**CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH.**

The sounds were definitely coming from the hole, the girl cowered behind Jotaro, who remained as stoic as a Greek statue. Jotaro peered in the hole, unlike the sewer, most of what he could see inside the hole was mostly made of moss and dirt, and it seemed to slowly ramp upwards, Jotaro ‘gently’ pushed the girl away from him, and stepped inside, “You wait here, it could be very dangerous inside.” he ordered, the girl had her eyes and mouth wide open in surprise “W-What? You’re just going to leave me here?!”

“Do you prefer discovering what’s making this noise, then?” he simply asked, looking behind to look at her, after a bit of hesitation, she stepped back without a word, and he slowly entered the hole.  
The hole was very wide and large, about five meters in height alone, and it was also very humid and slippy, making a climb upwards much more difficult than expected, but he endured it silently, and after two minutes managed to secure his footing onto the ramp, and started walking upwards, logically he thought that by going upwards, he’d be closer to an exit, or even if he didn’t he’d get close enough to the surface to punch an exit out with Star Platinum, but he would have preferred to avoid that, suddenly, the ramping stopped, and the grounded suddenly became very plain, but that wasn’t the only thing he noticed, once he saw what was inside the digged in room, even he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of fear.

Four broken human skeletons laid on the wet floor of the cavern, wet with water and dried out blood, at the center of the room stood a giant creature three times as tall as Jotaro, it was amphibian looking, like a giant frog, it was completely black, excluding for white-and-red bone armor covering parts of of the body and face, red eyes glowing red. Its mouth was filled with thin and pointy teeth, like syringes, and an extremely long tongue that was loosely laying on the ground it was looking down at Jotaro, its mouth going up and down as it crunched down on another, fifth human skeleton.

_**CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH.** _

“A grimm!” he shouted, instinctively summoning Star Platinum, however, the frog grimm didn’t move, simply looked down at Jotaro as it kept munching on the bones...before gulping it all down, and _smiling._ Jotaro’s eyes widened, and suddenly the tongue flew towards him at high speed, before he could even move himself or his Star Platinum, the black sticky tongue wrapped around his legs like a rope, and he found himself being swung sideways like he weighted nothing, and so was Star Platinum as of result.  
Jotaro was thrown against the rocky wall, and after a few seconds crashed back to the ground, covered in rubble, “B-Bastard….so it was you that dragged these people and me down here, huh?” He slowly stood up as the grimm smiled smugly, it looked like it was waiting for him to stand up, “Damn, for a soulless frog you’re pretty cocky, huh?” Jotaro stated, as Star Platinum lunged towards the beast, fist clenched and ready, the beast quickly jumped backwards six meters back sending a tremor across the entire cavern as it impacted the ground!  
“D-Damn it, so grimm CAN somehow sense Stands.” the bruised Jotaro stated, the grimm retracted its tongue back, before sending it back out towards him, Jotaro felt like his legs were going to give in from the pain, but as adrenaline kicked in, he made a sideways leap, the tongue was way too fast and retracted just as quickly to catch even with Star Platinum’s precision, but it was more predictable than, say, a bullet, allowing him to have an easier time dodging it.  
The frog let out a monstrous croak, as Jotaro started running in circles around it, trying to get closer to it, “ORA!” Star Platinum shouted, throwing a punch at one of the grimm’s hind legs, the oozy black layer of ‘skin’ deformed, the grimm croaked loud enough to create tremors, but before Star Platinum could let out a rush of punches the frog jumped backwards once more, and swung its tongue sideways towards Jotaro instead of straight towards him “W-What?!” Jotaro shouted, the tongue once again wrapping around him and picking him up, the tongue threw him away as far as possible, making him fly as his already really bruised back slammed against the wall and his face on the ground a second time, but even then Jotaro stood up, face bloodied up.

“Give me a fucking break.” Jotaro said, that monster was obviously avoiding getting too close to him, if it dragged Jotaro close to it and tried to chew him up, Jotaro would have the chance to fight back.  
What a clever grimm, too clever. Star Platinum, looking equally beat up, stood right in front of Jotaro, using its precision to predict where the tongue would go next, the grimm shot out the tongue once more, but Jotaro was prepared this time, the tongue was going straight towards his face, he quickly dodged to the side as the tongue impacted against the slightly blood-covered wall, the swift tongue slipped for just a second as it touched the blood, but it was just enough for Star Platinum to take a hold of it!  
“OOOORA!” Star Platinum let out his war cry as he gripped on the tongue with borh hands, the grimm’s eyes went wide, and it tried desperately to take his tongue out of his grip, Jotaro summoned all of his inner strength, and tugged at the tongue with all the force that he could muster, the frog grimm was elevated from the ground and was quickly slammed against the wall, sending out a great tremor!

However, even for Star Platinum’s strength, this was an extremely heavy weight, and Star Platinum’s expression showed how much it fatigued in swinging the grimm around, just a small falter in concentration would have caused him to lose hold of the tongue.“A-AAAAAAAH!” A great feminine scream echoed inside the cavern “W-What?!” Jotaro shouted, taken by surprise as Star Platinum lost hold of the tongue, and it quickly reeled back towards the grimm like it was a rubber band.   
It was the girl Jotaro left in the sewer! She was standing near the cavern’s entrance, completely petrified in fear, the grimm’s head suddenly turned towards the girl, and what was before a distressed look was now a grin showing off all of its teeth.

And it quickly shot its tongue towards her.

 

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Kinda wanted to go on for a bit longer, but I think this is a good place to end it here.


	23. Electrifying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the much shorter chapter, but due to my birthday I didn't have much time to write, hopefully you're all satisfied with this lenght nonetheless.

"Damn it, damn it! Jotaro, where the hell are you?!" Polnareff exclaimed, it's been about twenty minutes, and yet he couldn't find Jotaro anywhere, he couldn't help but sigh as he walked towards a dark and empty looking alley, might as well search there, right?

Taking a deep breath, the Frenchman shouted "Jotarooo? Jotarooo!", it's not like he expected a reply or anything of the sort, he did it more out of desperation than anything else, he sighed, and just as he expected, there was literally nothing there, just a bunch of empty wooden crates, he scratched the back of his head, and rested his back onto the two stacked crates, "Damn it, this is pointless, I wonder how Kakyoin's doing…Well, at least I got this thing"" he looked down at the vial of yellow Dust in his hand, and he quickly placed it inside his pocket. Without even willing it, he pushed back the probably empty crates with his body weight, almost making him trip onto the floor, "W-Woah! That was close!" he said as he looked down, and...he noticed something strange, under where the two boxes laid was a manhole.  
Polnareff could immediately tell something was wrong, why was a manhole in the middle of an alley? And why was it hidden like that? And why did it seem...dislodged, like someone opened it recently? As he asked himself those questions, he suddenly felt his pants vibrate, he took out the ringing Scroll and looked at the screen, **"Ruby Rose is Calling"**

Polnareff whispered a 'Sorry' as he shut off the Scroll, and looked down at the manhole, "My curiosity must be satisfied!"

* * *

The sticky, black tongue was going faster than a bullet towards the girl, instantly Jotaro knew what to do, "STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!" he ordered, the words almost blurring together from how quickly he shouted, instantly, that exact instant froze up, completely motion less, excluding Jotaro.  
 _Damn it, it's too far away, there's absolutely no way I can reach it inside the stopped time._ Jotaro thought, and immediately, an idea came to mind, Star Platinum picked up one of the smashed up, pointy bones from the ground, and threw it like a javelin towards the grimm's tongue with incredible force, the bone-javelin created a great initial shock-wave, but as soon as it got away from Jotaro, it stopped in mid air, "Guess that fight in Cairo taught me something."

Time quickly resumed, and just as the tongue was about to reach the girl, the bone penetrated side to side, cutting it neatly in half! The grimm let out a massive croak of pain, and it started to writhe around all over the place, sending tremors hard enough to sweep the poor girl off her feet.

Jotaro kicked his feet off the ground and started sprinting towards the girl, and as he did so, the grimm's eyes started to burn redder, its expression an angry scowl, in just a second white claws started to grow out of both the front and hind legs, and it started making small jumps towards the two! "I'm not a biologist, but I don't think frogs work like that." he calmly stated, grabbing hold of the girl and starting to make a run towards the exit of the cavernous room, the frog spat out its tongue once more, and even though it was just half its length and leaking black goo, or better, exactly because of this, it went even faster than before, whipping Jotaro's side and making him tumble sideways.

"G-Guh..." Jotaro, still holding onto the now-fainted girl, was starting to bleed from his mouth, even for him this was starting to be too much for his body to handle. The frog grimm jumped in front of the entrance, and it was slowly approaching the wounded Jotaro, it raised one of its front legs like a claw, and brought it down towards Jotaro.

Everything after that went by too quickly for Jotaro to even react, before the claws could hit him, he heard a sudden, familiar scream. It grew louder, and suddenly, out of a hole in the wall that Jotaro didn't even see before, he could see out of the corner of his eyes a very familiar figure, "Pol-" he couldn't even finish his phrase before he saw the familiar Frenchman screaming and practically flying towards him and the grimm, "A-Aaaaaaah! SILVER CHARIOT!" he screamed out, and the Stand promptly appeared in front of him. He was quickly flying from one end of the area to the other, and was quickly plummeting down...Towards the grimm, as soon as they got closer, the armored Stand grabbed its User's arm with its free hand, while the other hand was pointed straight down towards the grimm, in just a second, both Polnareff and Silver Chariot crashed on top of the grimm's back, Chariot's rapier impaled onto its back.

"YEAH, I TOTALLY MEANT TO DO THAT!" He screamed at the top of the grimm, Jotaro's eyes went wide once more, he did not expect this at all.  
The grimm started to trash around, trying to get Polnareff off its back like an infuriated horse, to no avail, Silver Chariot started to repeatedly stab its rapier back and forth inside the grimm's skin, sending out gushes of black goo every time he did so, Polnareff in the meantime started to climb on top of its back, and once he got a good grip on top of its head, he stood up, "Time to use my new secret technique!" he proudly exclaimed, and got the vial of yellow Dust out of his pocket, the grimm didn't even realize what was happening before Silver Chariot grabbed the vial, and sprinkled the dust all over its sword!

The sword almost immediately, and literally, sparked to life, becoming yellow as crackles of energy could be seen every now and again, "It worked!" Polnareff shouted, before Chariot stabbed the grimm again, the grimm croaked again and started trashing even more violently, almost making Polnareff lose his balance, Silver Chariot too started climbing, stabbing repeatedly as it made its way up.  
The grimm was practically _screaming_ in pain, and as of result was too distracted to even properly fight back. Silver Chariot made a leap and jumped right beside Polnareff, he grinned as he looked down at the writhing grimm, Silver Chariot quickly pushed its electrified rapier inside one of the grimm's amphibian eyes from tip to the hilt, and it _exploded_ into black and red goo, leaving only an empty eye-socket!

The grimm slowly fell to the ground, sending out its last croak before it started to dissipate into smoke, the figure of Polnareff becoming less visible. Jotaro was left speechless, he looked down at the still unconscious, but relatively unharmed girl, and then back at the thinning pillar of smoke, slowly, Polnareff's bulky silhouette started to appear.  
Polnareff coughed slightly as he approached at Jotaro, who was sitting on the ground "I have a crap tons of questions, including, but not limited to: Who the hell is that?" he started, and pointed his index finger at the girl, "And why the hell was there a giant monster frog inside these weird sewers?"  
"Hell if I know, but let's get this girl to an hospital first, and let's hope she does not remember any of this." Jotaro replied, slowly standing up, Polnareff's expression turned serious, and he nodded, "Alright, now let's get back, Kakyoin is probably still searching for you, after that I think we should speak to Ozpin about this, a grimm directly under the city isn't exactly a good sign."

_Good grief, I'm getting tired of always passing these informations around, I imagine Ruby and her team must know too._ He thought to himself, "Speaking of which." Jotaro started, and after a bit of hesitation: "How the hell do we get out of here?"  
Polnareff looked behind at the hole where he was basically shot out of, "Up there!"

* * *

Kakyoin walked out of the Taxi, or 'Dusty', as the oh-so-clever transportation company is called, and looked up at Beacon Academy, he got a call that Team RWBY, along with some other students, were attacked by a Stand User, "This truly isn't shaping up to be a good night." he simply said as he walked through the gates of the school. The guards looked at him weirdly at coming back at this late hour, but didn't say anything, he looked around warily, afraid of he too being attacked.

Fortunately, on his way to the dormitory, nothing of that sort happened, he slowly walked inside the first-year dormitory, and started to silently walk around the hallway, trying to not wake up the already sleeping teams, Kakyoin yawned a little, his body tired from all of the searching around the school, _Now, where's the RWBY's dorm?_ He thought to himself, and just as he started looking for the door, he noticed a single, small figure standing in the hallway, Kakyoin squinted his eyes a bit, and it was...Ruby!  
There she was, in her PJ's, laying against the door of her team, she seemed to have a worried expression on her face, looking lost in thought, Kakyoin slowly approached her, and when she noticed him, her expression brightened up, "Kakyoin…!" she whispered, trying not to shout, "I imagine the others are not with you..." she said, Kakyoin looked down and nodded.  
"Indeed, Jotaro just disappeared in the middle of the road, and we tried to split up and search for him, however it seems that Polnareff disappeared too." he explained, and Ruby's expression grew glum. "Are you alone? Where's the rest of the team?" Kakyoin asked, looking at the dorm's door, Ruby couldn't help but laugh a bit, "They're snoring on their beds, but I couldn't catch any sleep, I was too worried for you three." she said, with a mix of embarrassment and awkwardness.

Kakyoin smiled tiredly, this small girl may be a warrior in training, but it truly shows that she cares about the people around her. "Shouldn't we go help them..?" Ruby suggested, but surprisingly, Kakyoin shook his head, "I don't know why, but I have a feeling they're fine, I've travelled with them for more than a month, I'm sure that we would only cause more problems if we fell to the probable attacker's trap."  
Ruby placed her arms behind her back, "I...guess you're right, but I'm still worried, not only for them, but for the school and city itself, even with the guards around one of them still managed to target us, or...target me? I still don't know..." she said, looking down at the ground with a saddened look on her face.

Kakyoin felt the need to give her a hug, but restrained himself. "I promise we will fix this issue, the reason this is happening to you all is because of us, after all, but you and your team will need to lend us a hand, all right?" Kakyoin stated, Ruby smiled a bit and nodded, "Of course, that's what we've been doing up until now, right?"

* * *

While this was happening, after many, many attempts, the three managed to get out of the sewers out of the hole, both Jotaro and Polnareff were dirty with mud and dirt, "A-Argh, how could have I known that going up wouldn't have been as easy as going down?!" Polnareff shouted, scrolling off the dirt that he gained by climbing up the hole, Jotaro growled like an angry dog as he lifted the unconscious girl on his back, "Shut up and start walking, first things first we'll bring this kid to a hospital, and then we're going back to Beacon."

And so they did, they brought the bruised girl to the nearest hospital, and after insisting that they themselves didn't need any treatment, they went back to Beacon, walking back to their secret cottage, unsurprisingly, they found Kakyoin in the bedroom, but what was surprising is finding that _Ruby_ was in the bedroom too, happily conversing with Kakyoin, "W-Woah woah! What's goin on here?!" Polnareff shouted, Kakyoin and Ruby's heads turned towards them, and they both smiled, "You're back! I'm glad, what happened?" Kakyoin simply asked.  
"Before any of that, why is she here?!" Polnareff pointed at Ruby, who looked slightly offended.  
"Well, Ruby is our ally, right? There's no reason to hide where we sleep from her." Kakyoin replied, and then pointed at the beds "Anyway, sit down you two, doubt we're going to sleep any time soon!"

[To Be Continued]-->


	24. The Day After

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author Note: Again, short chapter this week, sorry. But this was a bit of a stressfull week with me having to transfer and everything. Don't worry though, chapters (should) come out regularly anyhow

That night the four spent time by exchanging on what happened that day, the Stand User in the library, the strange sewers under the commercial district, Team JNPR and the frog grimm. After midnight, Ruby, who looked incredibly tired, waved them off and started to go back to the dormitory, having promised that she would tell this to the rest of the team the next day.  
And so she did, out of all of them Blake was the one who took most interest in the assault at the sewers, and after classes, she went straight towards the library, in a quiet corner, seemingly searching for something.

That day was also the day the Stand Users went back to school, mostly because Polnareff needed to work, as he was the only one making money at the moment due to his job as a janitor.  
The return was met with a mix of relief and fear, now that the rumors spread like wildfire inside the academy everyone knew those three had some...unusual properties, even the Jotaro fanclub was hesitant to welcome him back with open arms.  
But, at the same time, Team RWBY seemed to already hang out with them more openly, all of them that day, excluding Blake and Polnareff, who was busy working, were making small talk while walking in the hallways, even the usually broody Jotaro couldn't help but open up just a little bit more around them, it seemed that their bonds were tightening.

And meanwhile, Blake was in the corner of the library, sitting down near a table full of old looking maps, she seemed completely immersed in her research, so much so that she jumped slightly when she heard someone calling out her name, "Oh, hello there, Blake!"  
Blake looked up surprised, and there she saw Pyrrha smiling sweetly, "Oh, sorry to disturb you!" she said, but Blake quickly shook her head, "I-It's fine, it's fine, you just took me by surprise, where's your team?"  
"I could ask the same about yours, but they're just eating lunch in the cafeteria, I'll join them soon, just had to get a book. What are _you_ doing though?" Pyrrha asked, leaning over to look at the maps, but they didn't look like maps of Remnant or of any cities, a title scribbled on some of the maps made it clear on what it was however: 'Vale Sewers'  
"I-I, uh, I can explain." Blake mumbled, she did not want people start thinking that researching old sewer maps was one of her hobbies, but Pyrrha did not seem bothered by it, and unexpectedly stated: "Are you looking for the Underground That Never Was?" she asked with a smile, Blake looked confused at first, and then surprised, "I-uh, what?"

Pyrrha laughed, "Oh, you know, it's just some silly rumor, they say that if you walk into a certain, mostly abandoned zone of the commercial district at night, you get dragged to a secret place underground by an unknown force." Pyrrha explained, Blake looked stunned for a second, but then looked at the maps, "Actually, yes." she replied, Pyrrha crossed her arms behind her back, interested, "Oh, did not think you were the type to research on these legends, what exactly are you looking for?" she said, taking a seat in front of her, seemingly having forgotten of the book she had to get.

"Don't ask me why, but I got a...feeling, that this 'underground' is a hidden sewer, a sewer that is not supposed to exist." she looked at the maps intently, each map showed a labyrinth of tunnels and sewers going around the whole city, the more recent it was, the bigger the labyrinth was, however, something was off, in the middle of where the commercial district should be, there was a complete lack of sewers even in the most recent maps, but just at the centre, just at a relatively small spot.  
Blake pointed at the white square, and Pyrrha nodded, "I see, I see...but why does it matter?" Pyrrha asked.  
Blake knew she couldn't keep it a secret, and why should she? "Well, you see...I think something strange is happening, and..." she lowered her tone, "One of my friends, one of those 'Stand Users', went into this Sewer That Never Was, and found that the disappearances were caused by a grimm who made its nest there."

Pyrrha was visibly shocked at this, her eyes wide open, "W-What? But a grimm to be directly under the city, how is that possible?" she asked, Blake looked down at the maps once again, "That's exactly what I'm trying to find out, but I already have a faint idea of why that grimm was there. It didn't dig or find its way 'casually' inside some hidden sewers, instead I think someone placed it there, and then hid its presence." she said, and she got a bad feeling in her gut as she said that, could it have been the assassins? No, it was not possible, Jotaro got caught by pure chance, then could it have been the White Fang? And in that case, why? Those were questions she could not answer, yet.  
Pyrrha suddenly stood up, a determined look on her face, "I'd do some research myself then, if there really is a 'plot' under this legend, then it's my duty as a Huntress-In-Training to discover it." she turned around, and left in a hurry, her heels clacking against the floor of the library.

Blake too had a determined look, and examined the maps once more, "I didn't even think these maps would be in the library, go figure." and then, as soon as she said that, she noticed something on one of the newer-looking maps, there were, invisible to the eyes of normal people, extremely small symbols inside of the empty space in the map, and even with her Faunus perception she could just barely see them, it looked like...a secret code.  
She gasped, rolled up the map, and she too ran out of the library.

Her theory might be true after all.

* * *

The young man slowly opened his eyes, and a groan escaped his mouth, where was he? The last thing he remembers is the explosion, and then being surrounded by people, and...getting brought in this building, he slowly sat up onto the bed, looking around the wooden building filled with empty beds, "D-Damn it, my mind aches like hell..." he muttered, and then, the door slowly creaked open, and Qrow slowly walked inside the room, "Finally, kid, I couldn't stand staying in this village any longer." he calmly stated as he sat on an empty bed beside him, "You're Josuke, right?"

Josuke squinted his eyes as he looked at Qrow, "Who are you and why do you know my name?" he asked, on the brink on summoning his Stand. "Woah, hey, calm down kiddo." Qrow threw his arms up, he could feel an...aura around him, the same aura that thug had when he assaulted him, "Name's Qrow, and the doctor here told me your name, I'm here to get you out of here."

_Doctor? Is this place some kind of shabby hospital or something?_ Josuke thought to himself, and as he did, his eyes went wide open as he quickly stood up, memories rushing back, "T-The house! Hayato! Okuyasu!" he shouted, surprising Qrow. "I said calm down, listen, whoever you're searching is not here, and...it seems that you yourself don't belong here." Qrow replied, Josuke looked at him weirdly, but before he could reply Qrow continued "Let me guess, you too come from a place called 'Japan', right?"  
"I-I...yes, why? We aren't in Japan?" Josuke replied, looking extremely confused, Qrow sighed, "No, you're in the Kingdom of Vale, welcome to our little world." he said as he took out a flask, and started to chug down the contents.

_What the hell is happening here?_ He thought, this felt incredibly surreal, he shook his head and tried not to think about it too hard, "So, mister 'Qrow', where do you intend to take me, huh?" he asked with a suspicious look. "To a place where you may find some people in a similar situation, you're not the first to have been brought here from another world, now I'm sure you have all kinds of questions, but they'll all be answered by my friend over there."  
 _And why should I trust you?_ he was about to say, but Qrow quickly followed up with a question that shut him up, "But first, I'll have to see your little 'Talent', come on, show it." Qrow stated in a challenging tone. "Talent? What the hell are you talking about?" he asked, but Qrow just stared at him. _Could this guy be a Stand User?_

There was only one way to find out. The aura around him got stronger, and in a second, a large humanoid Stand appeared beside him, with what looked like pink skin covered by plates of white armor. Qrow looked at the Stand and smiled, "Well, that's a wild looking one. Congrats, you pass the test." he said, and nonchalantly took another chug out of the flask.  
Josuke tightened his hand into a fist, and his Stand mimicked him, "So you are a Stand User! What the hell do you want from me?" he shouted, but Qrow just placed the cap of the flask back on very calmly, "You got that wrong, I'm no Stand Users, but through some bullcrap rules I don't quite understand myself, I can see your power. And as for what I want, I already told you."

Josuke stared at Qrow, before he relaxed a bit, "Fine, I'm going to make the mistake of trustin' you, but do one bad move and you're catching these hands." he stated, and Crazy Diamond went into a boxing stance before slowly disappearing, Qrow slowly stood up, "Alright, let's get a move on then, the nearest train station is a few days of walk from here." and then, he walked towards the door.  
"Woah woah woah! What the hell?! I'm supposed to walk with you?! Don't you have a car or something like all adults?!" Josuke shouted in protest, but Qrow just said "Nope." and walked out of the room.

Josuke hesitantly followed him, muttering "Great, this is just great..."

* * *

Blake tried, she really did, but after fifteen minutes of frustrating experiments and lunch abandonment, she gave up. She dropped the map onto her bed and sighed, "Damn it, it has to mean something, I know it does..."  
And then, the door slammed open, and her three teammates, with Yang as the lead, entered the dorm, making Blake jump in surprise for the second time that day, "Hey Blake! There you are, we were worried for you when you run off like that, did you even eat?" Yang said, jumping onto her bed, making it bounce slightly, Ruby and Weiss too looked worried, in their own ways.

"I...didn't, but it's not a problem, I can always eat later." Blake admitted.  
"That does not sound healthy, I hope for you that this does not become a habit" Weiss said, before her head turned towards the map, "What is that?"  
She turned towards the map, and she quickly rolled it up, "Just something I found in the library, it's a map of the sewers with a weird secret code in there, but I still haven't managed to even read what's on it."

"Sounds...uh, exciting." Weiss replied, looking at her other two teammates, Yang laughed heartily "And what is it? Some sort of secret treasure? That'd be neat." she jokingly suggested, and promptly Blake shook her head, "I...Don't think so, but I have no way of knowing without having this map analysed by professionals, and I'd honestly prefer if only we and the people we can trust saw the contents of this code."  
She unrolled the map and helt it in front of her, and placed a magnifying glass in front of the white space, the symbols on it became a bit more visible, but were still completely unreadable.

Everyone stared at it silent for a while, before Yang spoke up, "Why don't you show it to Jotaro? Just today he was subtly bragging about his Stand's incredible eyesight while we were eating, I'm sure he'd be willing to help you out!" after she finished suggesting this, both Ruby and Weiss nodded in agreement.  
"I...guess I can give it a shot, worse comes to worst I'll ask Professor Ozpin for help." Blake said, and then stood up, approaching the closed door. "And be sure to eat something!" Yang shouted, relaxing down on the bed.  
"Fine, mom!" Blake shouted in a fake exasperated tone as she walked out of the room.

* * *

The Door's footsteps echoed across the elegant hallway of his hideout, his shadow moving unnaturally, "So, it seems our newfound 'Ally' is finally getting out of the shadows, let us hope that they will work for our cause." the ginger haired man stated in the empty hallway, his shadow giggled, "I wouldn't hope for that, those lunatics are only working for us because they'd be quickly overpowered by Salem's forces if they didn't. They'll back stab us at the first chance they'll get!" the shadow replied in a high pitched tone.  
"Indeed, my greatest fear is that they'll ally with Dio, bringing him back to full power, or worse..." The Door replied as he pushed the door in front of him open, "But we can't do anything for now, or we'll upset Mother."  
The shadow's grin turned into a frown at those words "Or worse, disappoint her."

[To Be Continued]-->


	25. The Map

Blake ran down the stairs of the dormitory, brushing past a few students, now where could Jotaro be? After the previous night, Ruby told them where their hideout was, so it could be possible they were there, and it was the safest bet.  
She followed Ruby's instructions from memory,, entering the foliage just outside Beacon, it took a few minutes, but she navigated through the wild mess and found it, it was just as Ruby described, old-fashioned, but comfortable.  
She knocked on the door...and no one responded, she knocked again, a bit harder, and she heard the sounds of footsteps coming from inside the building, and a voice she recognized to be Kakyoin's, "Who's there?" he asked, suspicious.  
Blake quickly replied, "Blake...you know, Blake Belladonna?" she said, a few seconds passed, and the door slowly creaked open, "Sorry, can't be careful enough when you're in our position." he said, and he opened up the door, letting her in.

She took a few steps inside the hallway, and noticed...that Polnareff was hanging from the ceiling, Silver Chariot ready, Blake was taken aback by this tactic, Polnareff took a deep breath and dropped down, falling on his feet as Silver Chariot dissapeared.  
"Do you always do this every time someone knocks?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, Polnareff placed a hand on his aching back and groaned, "Thankfully it does not happen that often."  
Polnareff slowly walked back to the kitchen as he said that, and Kakyoin closed the front door, approaching Blake, "Why exactly are you here?" he asked.  
She looked around and peered inside the empty bedroom, before turning towards Kakyoin, "Where's Jotaro?" she asked, and Kakyoin raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "You mean he isn't with your team?" he asked, and she crossed her arms, "I wouldn't be here if he was."  
"I don't know then, Jotaro told us he'll be with Ruby's team for a little while, could he have dissapeared?." Kakyoin replied, and among the fizzling and stirring of pots, Polnareff shouted from the kitchen: "Not this crap again!"

Blake couldn't help but groan, of course it wouldn't be easy, "Have any idea on where to find him?" she asked, Kakyoin looked down at the ground with a hand on his chin, "Unless he has been dragged away again, he could be still somewhere at Beacon, couldn't have gone that far, but he has lost his Scroll in the sewers, so even if we wanted we couldn't call him. But may I ask why are you searching for him?" Kakyoin replied, a curious look on his face  
Blake shook her head, she had a bad feeling about this, "I'll explain later, but thanks anyway." she said, and quickly ran out of the hideout without adding anything more."Should we go help her?" Polnareff asked, poking his head out, Kakyoin looked up in thought, and took a few steps towards the kitchen, "I don't think we should, anyway, can I get a bite of whatever you're eating? The cafeteria food was quite unsatisfying."

* * *

"A-Ah, this didn't take that long..." Blake muttered as she looked at the scene in front of her: in-between the first year and second year dormitories, Jotaro was standing still with Star Platinum standing beside him, and three hooded men laid on the ground unconcious, another one with the same hood stood in front of Jotaro, hand trembling as he tried to point a gun right at Jotaro. Star Platinum leaped forwards, and without wasting time, smashed his fist on his face, making him fly backwards and slam into a wall, unconscious.  
Blake slowly approached Jotaro, and looked down at the aggressors, "Who...are these people?" she asked

"Hell if I know, these four just assaulted me out of the blue and tried to stab me." he replied with a hint of exasperation as he turned around towards Blake, who seemed to space out for a moment, kneeling down and pulling down the hoods of the assailants, "These...can't be White Fang members, that's for sure, they completely lack masks or Faunus features, they could be simple assassins." but she couldn't help but be bothered by something, all of their shirts had a white circle that spanned the entirety of the chest. She shook her head and ignored for the moment, and took out the rolled up map she tucked away, catching Jotaro's attention, "In any case, could you come with me? My team is waiting in the dormitory."  
Jotaro raised an eyebrow, but nodded and followed her.

"So, you're telling me..." Jotaro started, looking at the sewer map, "to use my Stand to find out whatever could be hidden in this map.", Blake nodded, and the rest of Team RWBY stared at Jotaro expectantly. Jotaro looked at them briefly, before his eyes rolled back to the map, "I can attempt." he simply stated, Star Platinum, sitting beside him and holding a pen and a piece of paper, leaned in to look at the picture, and it lightly tapped the pen's tip against the paper as it began analysing.  
After a moment, Star Platinum's arm began moving at high speed, drawing incredibly quickly as it kept staring at the map, sometimes sending squirts of ink around, this trick worked once, so it should work again.

Star Platinum stopped, and everyone leaned in to look at what it wrote, and there it was, clear as day: _**Silver Records Tunnel Completion: 68%. Insider Status: Operative**_

"Silver Records…?" Ruby read,

"Sounds like the name of a club." Yang commented.

"Yeah, it kinda does."

"What's this about an insider?" Weiss asked, pointing at said word, Blake looked at it too, curious, "Whatever this 'Silver Records' is, there may be an insider inside the school, which might explain why these maps and this secret message were in the school's library, this map is barely from a month ago, so the insider might still be here." she observed, and suddenly, she remembered, "Those thugs that assailed Jotaro had symbols that resembled silver records, they must have attacked him because he escaped the tunnel!"  
Jotaro nodded, "If this Silver Records is the one that made that tunnel and sent out assassins, I think it's safe to say they're our enemies."  
Ruby sighed, "One more to the list...We might just be the most hated people in Vale right now."

Blake shook her head and turned to Jotaro, "Can we really handle these many factions going against us at once?"  
Jotaro's face didn't change a bit, "I don't know. But if we manage to make it so one of these factions can't harm us, we'll have an easier time fighting the others."

Team RWBY nodded, "I'll try my best to find as many informations as I can about 'Silver Records'" Blake stated, and Yang stood up, "And I'll help her! I'm not great at researching, but I'm going to make sure she doesn't work herself too hard." she said, grinning at Blake, who smiled back.  
Jotaro rolled up the map and grabbed the piece of paper as Star Platinum dissapeared, and stood up, "I'm going to inform the others of this. Be even more careful as of today." he said, and Yang approached him "Aww, is the cold Jotaro worried for us?" she said in a jokingly mocking tone, hands on her hips.

Jotaro turned around with an almost silent "Hmph..." and walked out, and Yang giggled, which made Blake raise an eyebrow. "Huh, Yang, are you…?" Blake started, but stopped once the others turned around to look at her, "Hmm?" Yang tilted her head curious, but Blake shook her head and looked down at the ground,"Never mind."

* * *

Two days later:

The sound of chains echoed across the wide auditorium, dozens of people kneeled down, like in a solemn prayer, the snarls of beasts filled the room, but they didn't move, completely fearless.

Footsteps broke the noise, as if the beasts wouldn't dare cry out, and the people stood up all at the same time. The man stood at the end of the room, looking down at his followers. "Welcome, my believers, it is the time that many of you have been waiting for. On this day, one of you will receive the Gift, and transcend humanity itself." he announced, his voice low and deep, but loud enough that everyone could hear it. The leader raised his hands into the air, robes covering his entire body and those of his followers, "It is thanks to your hard work and sacrifices that we've been able to get so far. Be proud!"

The followers raised a fist into the air and shouted all at the same time, creating a single, loud voice that echoed in the room, proudly showing off the circular symbol on their robes, the Silver Record.

* * *

"I-I'm so damn hungry..." Josuke whined, his stomach grumbling as he kept walking, Qrow was ahead of him, weapon strapped to his back, "But you just finished eating." he said, turning around to look at him.  
"I know, but it wasn't enough! I've burned a ton of calories these past few days, are we even there yet?" Josuke replied, and Qrow sighed heavily, "No, no, we're not there yet, you've already asked that, it's a few days ahead at best."  
Josuke looked down, kicking a small pebble away from the dirt road, mumbling to himself, and almost bumped into Qrow when he stopped, "H-Hey, why did y-" Josuke was about to say, but Qrow quickly shushed him, and he quickly looked around.

On the sides of the dirt road stretched rows and rows of trees, from one side, both could distinctly hear the sound of rustling, and as seconds passed it grew even closer, Josuke didn't even have time to ask what was happening that the head of a gigantic white snake rushed out of the forest, and slithered right in front of the road, hissing at the humans.  
After just a moment, a second snake head popped out right beside of the first one, this one black, at a first look it would seem the two snakes were intertwined, but in reality the black and white snakes were conjoined together. "A King Taijitu here?!" Qrow shouted, grabbing his sword with both hands while he looked back at a shocked Josuke, "Get back, kid! I'm taking care of this!"  
But, surprising Qrow, Josuke stepped forwards, a smile on his face as he brought out his Stand, making both snake heads lock on to him, "So...this is one of those grimm you talked about?" Josuke asked, Crazy Diamond's standing right in front of him in a battle position, "Heh, this seems like a scene straight out of a video game!"

And before Qrow could act, Crazy Diamond lunged forward

[To Be Continued]-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger, but if I didn't finish it there I would have not been able to publish this today, and sorry for the shorter chapter


	26. Chance Encounters

"Dora!" Josuke's Stand shouted, the white head hissed in anger as Crazy Diamond's fist punched its body, sending it reeling back with tremendous force, Qrow couldn't help but have his jaw wide open, that thing's physical power was insane, a flurry of punches from it would turn at least one head to mush.  
But of course, the grimm wouldn't let that, the white head bit at Crazy Diamond, while its other head slithered and charged towards Qrow, Crazy Diamond instinctively dodged and kicked the side of the face, slightly cracking it, while Qrow jumped upwards and landed straight on the black head's mouth, keeping it shut as he calmly raised his sword and brought it down upon its neck, for a skilled huntsman like him, a King Taijitu would have not been a problem.  
Except the fact that the skin was surprisingly stiff, Qrow's sword only scratched it before the head's struggles scrolled him off of it, and it raised and hissed in anger, Qrow could see that the grimm's white armor turned dark for a second.  
"Wow, this thing's tough!" Jotaro exclaimed, retreating Crazy Diamond from another bite, and he too jumped away as the grimm got closer.

To a seasoned huntsman like Qrow, it was apperent that something was very wrong, normally his sword would have cleaved the head from the body, but not this time, it was...incredibly worrying. Crazy Diamond floated closer to the grimm and tentatively gave out another punch, again making it reel back with an evident shock wave, but as Qrow kept the black head distracted, he noticed that the white head's body moved back, and was curving like an s, the red eyes burning.  
That couldn't mean anything good, but Josuke was not realizing it, Qrow moved back and his sword started making a mechanical sound, like gears shifting, and then, the blade slightly detached from the hilt, going sideways, Qrow pointed the hilt at the white head and pressed the hidden trigger, from the hilt several bullets shot out at high speed, hitting the head, but not making any particular damage, instead making the head's attention turn to Qrow.  
"W-What the hell? You didn't tell me your sword could do that!" Josuke shouted, surprised  
"Just shut up and get back!" Qrow shouted, and just as he finished saying that, the white head opened its mouth, and a globe of green acid the size of a Qrow's entire body was shot out of it at high speed, aimed at him.

Qrow did not expect an attack like that, he jumped a little bit too late, and the acid that splashed to the ground hit his left leg slightly, penetrating his aura and burning his clothes and flesh, he groaned as he fell on his side, dropping his sword, the dark head slithering towards him.  
"Qrow!" Josuke shouted, running towards him, but the King Taijitu wouldn't let him, the white head went in front of him and headbutted him, making him reel back and nearly fall.  
Crazy Diamond went back into position, but the white head didn't attack, it was probably being cautious, Crazy Diamond's kick managed to slightly crack its scales. Josuke didn't allow this moment of hesitation to pass, Crazy Diamond kicked off the ground, raising dirt, as it flew towards the snake grimm, arm threw back into its shoulder, ready to punch, the grimm could sense the attack, however, and as soon as the arm got near, the snake chomped down.  
"A-Argh!" Josuke shouted, Crazy Diamond's hand caught one of the upper teeth and kept the mouth open before the grimm could chew off its arm, he didn't know why, maybe instinct, that that grimm could harm his Stand.

At the same time, the black head lunged towards Qrow, but while he lost his composure, he was still ready, he grabbed his sword's hilt and swung it blindly, hitting the head with the flat of the blade, and while not causing any serious damage, it deviated the attack, giving Qrow enough time to groggily stand up, and turned towards the struggling Crazy Diamond, "Josuke, push 'im!" he shouted.  
Josuke nodded, and with a jab to the chin he smacked the grimm's second mouth closed, and with another he punched the white head away, there was a slight 'crack', and the white head smacked heavily against the black head.  
Josuke started to breathe heavily, he never experienced a fight like this, this wasn't a Stand fight based on clever tricks, this was a battle based entirely on endurance and raw power. Qrow could barely stand and lift his sword, and Josuke was way less experienced than Qrow in fighting against this sort of stuff, so despite all the hits, the fight seemed to favour the grimm.

Or so it seemed, until the white head's scales began falling off, black goop falling from the holes, the two heads made a loud hiss, and it...retreated in the woods where it came.

Qrow looked at the scene confused, rarely would a grimm ever escape a fight unless they were significantly smart, normally they would fight to the death even if they had no chance of winning. But honestly, nothing was normal about that grimm. As he pondered about this, Qrow fell to his back, the leg burned to the point that one could see a bit of bone. Josuke ran towards the injured Qrow, Crazy Diamond at the ready, "S-Stay back, kid, I can.." Qrow tried to stand up again, but was completely unable to, "Ah, nope, never mind." he calmly said.  
"Just stay still!" Josuke shouted as he crouched, Crazy Diamond's finger slightly touching the wound, Qrow expected it to hurt, but...it didn't, instead it begun to hurt less, and he stared in awe as the wound started to fix itself, along with his pants, and not only that, he felt that his Aura too was being quickly restored.  
"There, done." Josuke said, standing up, Crazy Diamond fading away, Qrow stood up, putting away his sword  
"Not gonna lie, that's a pretty amazing skill." Qrow admitted, Josuke couldn't help but smile at the compliment, "Would be even better if it worked on myself." Josuke replied.  
 _Ah, there's the let down._ Qrow thought, but he shrug it off when Josuke asked: "Damn, you deal with those things on a daily basis?"

Qrow crossed his arms, "Yes, but I've never met a King Tajitu this...particular, despite their size they're usually quite fragile, but this one was...strange, and they don't have acid." he explained, "And, I think, the white head was weaker than the black head, for whatever reason, which is why it cracked and it retreated." _Or this kid's punches are stronger than me_ , he thought.  
Josuke scratched the side of his head, not truly getting all of it "All right, let's just hope we don't encounter that thing again" he replied.  
Qrow nodded, and begun leading the way, walking down the dirt path, Josuke was about to follow him, but just after he took a few steps, he noticed that...something was watching him from the bush, small eyes, not like those of the snake grimm, more similar of those of a human, but bright...  
Just in a second, it was gone, Josuke hurried up towards Qrow, "Hey! I think I saw someone in there!" he said, pointing at the woods, but the tired Qrow simply shrug it off, "You probably just imagined it, it's normal to be a bit paranoid after an encounter like that."

Josuke sighed, "I...guess you're right."

* * *

"Y'know, I think we should give up at this point" Yang said, sitting on the grass of a small hill at the outskirts of the school, just below her was Blake, nose immersed on an old book that had its pages yellowed by time, and beside her there was a small tower of other books thick as bricks.  
Blake did not reply, which made Yang continue, "Like, seriously, if we didn't find anything on the network, then what makes you think we'll find something in old books?"  
Blake's eyes kept scanning the ink of the pages, "These are not 'old books', they're the diaries of old Huntsmen and Huntresses, I'm trying to see if there's any mention of a 'Silver Records' here in their travels." she replied, turning the page.

Yang sighed and laid on the grass, hands behind her head, "Yes, I know, you've been doing that for two days, and we still haven't found the slightest bit of clue on whoever or whatever these 'Silver Records' are, only thing I found was a dance club by the same name."  
Blake closed the book, turning her head towards Yang, "And what do you suggest, then?" she asked in a rather annoyed tone, Yang placed one leg over the other as she looked up at the evening sky, "Don't know, maybe go back to that 'tunnel' to look for clues that the others missed?"

Blake slightly bit her lower lip at the suggestion, "Well, actually...someone's in there already."

* * *

Jaune whined as his boots splashed against the muddy water of the sewer, "Why did you all bring me into this..." he muttered, which made Pyrrha turn around and look at him with a smile, "You're our leader, we would never go on an adventure without you!"  
"Oh, this is an adventure, all right." Ren, full of sarcasm, rolled his eyes, while Nora splashed onto the water like a little kid in a puddle, or more likely, an elephant stepping over equally-as-big puddles.  
"Oh come on, these sorts of adventures will become a usual thing after we graduate!" Pyrrha replied, which made Jaune scratch the side of his head in confusion, "Uh...We're supposed to become guardians of humanity, not sewer cleaners..." he muttered.  
Pyrrha shushed Jaune as they arrived at the dead end, the secret passage opened by Jotaro still open, she was the first one to pass through, and Jaune was the last.  
"What exactly are we supposed to do here?" Ren asked, looking around in the dark sewer, "Find clues" Pyrrha simply replied.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at the former grimm's hideout, and when they saw the skeletons and blood lying around, all of them reacted quite badly, Nora gasped before Ren covered her eyes, Jaune went green, on the verge of vomit, Pyrrha's eyes widened, Blake didn't tell her about this, probably because she didn't know herself.  
"I'm...never going in a sewr with you all again." Jaune stated, facing the wall and pressing his hand against it.

_Click_

Jaune fell on his behind as the dirt and stone wall in front of him started to move, splitting apart and revealing a metal door behind it!

Everyone was shocked at this, but after a while, Pyrrha went up to Jaune and ruffled his hair, "Good work, leader." she said in an almost comforting voice as she looked at the metal door, on it was engraved a circular symbol, it was surely the 'Silver Records' Blake mentioned the day before, she slowly approached the door and pushed it, it surprisingly opened easily. Beyond laid a lit and furnished room, it almost looked like a study, with a desk and various books. She took a step in, and the team followed soon after.

The first thing Pyrrha did was approaching the desk, her curiosity taking the best of her as she opened up one of the books with the same symbol drawn on their covers, but, to her disappointment it all seemed to be written in a secret code, featuring various hieroglyphs and letters foreign to her, she closed the book and tried the other, still coded, the others, except Ren, joined her, looking at the five or so books, but it was obvious they wouldn't gather anything from that if they couldn't decipher it.

Ren, however, went on the other side of the room, there seemed to be another metal door, he tried to push it open, but it just rustled in place, not wanting to budge, Ren sighed, but they were gurdians in training, if they put their strength together they could bust it down.  
Or so he thought before a growl could be heard coming from the other side of the locked door, the growl was bestial and loud enough that everyone could hear it, sending shivers up their spines. Ren took a few steps back, hands on one of his guns, "It's better we don't open this one, for now." Team JNPR nodded, and Jaune spoke up, "W-We should bring these outside, they could be useful if we manage to decipher them."

Nobody was against the idea, so the team started picking up the books and tucking them somewhere safe. Just as they were about to walk outside the door suddenly closed, and before they could react the room started to heat up. "H-Hey, what's going on here…?" Nora muttered, starting to sweat, "There, look!" Ren shouted, pointing at the locked door.

Flames were pouring out of the cracks of the door, a low howl filling the room.

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Man, Qrow is really a bad luck charm, is he?  
> N.2: I didn't want to overuse the 'Dora', but don't worry, you'll see them


	27. Burn, baby!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter again, I'm sorry, I'll try to push out a chapter of at least 2.000 words next week

The tongues of fire slithered out of the cracks of the door like snakes, Jaune instinctively ran towards the door where they came from and tried to push it open, but it seemed locked from the outside, "I-It won't budge!" he shouted, he slammed with his shoulders against the door, but it was no use.  
The heat was getting unbearable as the others stared at the scene in front of them: the flames that slithered out of the door were starting to weave and fuse together, shaping unnaturally into a large canine form, tall two meters, one by one Team JNPR grabbed hold of their weapons, ready. The flames didn't move , until two bright red lights appeared in the 'head', and a vicious growl echoed around them, the legs of the being started to move forward, and as it got closer the being seemed to become more...solid, it was like it was made out of burning rocks and flames, two great words burned on the sides of the beast, burning like hot coal: "RED" on the left, and "VOX" on the right.

The 'Red Vox' approached the team and snorted out if it's nostril, letting out fumes, and then charged towards them! As the flaming canine quickly approached, the team dodged aside, Jaune and Ren on one side and Pyrrha and Nora on the other, the Red Vox turned around just as it was about to slam against the metal door, "W-What the hell is this thing?!" Jaune shouted, holding his shield in front of him, but nobody knew how to reply to him. Ren quickly pointed his guns at the beast, strafing to the side as a volley of bullets made contact against the rock-hard skin of the being, making it stagger back, Pyrrha joined up, her sword twisting and turning in her hand as it transformed into a rifle, she went on one knee as she started pelting the being with bullets.

The Red Vox, however, was only enraged by this, and the flames in its body growing brighter, making the room unbearably hot, the being charged forward despite being shot dozens of times, and before any of them could get one clear hit on it, fire began spewing from its mouth like a flamethrower, "A-Ah!" Jaune shouted, the flames hitting his shield and driving him back, but it didn't target only him, the beast's head turned around clockwise very quickly.

The team went backwards, out of the flame's range, fortunately only with some few minor burns on their clothes, Pyrrha turned towards Jaune, her rifle turning back into a red sword, "Your orders?" she asked expectantly, Jaune started to sweat, and not only for the heat, "U-Um, let's attack it all at once, hit it from the sides!" he shouted, everyone else nodded, strangely confident about their not-so-confident leader. However, getting to the sides of the creature was easier said than done, the beast kept spewing fire blindly, and the furniture of the room itself started to burn down, it was like it was trying to destroy the secret room for whatever motive. The first one to rush towards it was Nora, who hammer in hand was itching to go against the enemy, and swung her hammer in an arc, the tall beast jumped back, the hammer brushing against it, however, Pyrrha and Jaune run behind it, and swung their swords down at it!

The blades slammed against the Red Vox, however, it only slightly scratched the rocky surface without any serious damage, the beast slammed its front feet, sending out waves of fires that forced everyone back, "A-Ah! Our blades are not effective against it!" Pyrrha shouted, but the beast ignored her, instead focusing its eyes on...Nora, before the others could react, it charged towards Nora, spewing flames and fumes from its mouth, Nora attempted to jump back, but the Red Vox's burning body curved slightly and slammed against her, sending her flying back and slam against the wall.

"Nora!" Ren shouted, as he ran towards the downed Nora in a rush, Jaune and Pyrrha doing the same, yet the beast was completely ignoring them both, even after Ren started shooting at it, it was still rushing towards Nora. "U-Uugh..." Nora groaned, gripping tight on her hammer as she saw the being stopping right in front of her, Ren instinctively screamed as the beast raised one 'paw', claws made of rocks and flames started to slam down towards her.

Nora took a hold of her remaining strength, lifting the hammer and bringing it up towards the chest of the beast, but she must have hit with a lot more force than she expected, because the beast was propelled upwards, chunks of rocks propelled out of its back, Red Vox roared as it slammed back to the ground, allowing Nora to stand back up, the rest stopped dead in their tracks, surprised as the Red Vox backed away from them, snarling madly, looking at Nora with eyes full of anger, "Nora! He's attacking you because of your hammer, it fears you!" Pyrrha made her notice, and the bruised Nora, surrounded by a fiery inferno, crooked her smile into a grin, "Heh, then leave this thing to me!" she shouted with confidence, turning around to face the rocky creature, Ren took a step forward and reach out his hand towards her, but Jaune stopped him, looking at him with a serious face, "Leave this to her, the fire is getting worse, we need to open the door, or else we'll suffocate!" he shouted, looking at the door where they came from.

"I...Okay." Ren nodded, now that he made him notice, the air around was starting to lack, he coughed twice, before rushing with the others towards the door.

The heat was becoming so unbearable that Nora's Aura was starting to whittle down just by staying there, she knew she had to end this, and quickly. The beast circled around her, snarling like a mad wolf, in such a precarious situation she couldn't risk getting hit by her own grenades, she'd have to fight it with her hammer alone, Red Vox jumped towards her, clearly intending to rip her throat out...or so she thought, she stepped sideways, but the canine bit onto the handle of the hammer, trying to take it off her!  
Nora gasped, and tried to pull it out of the mouth of the Red Vox, but the monster's strength was absurd, if her Aura were to give in, this thing could pull away her arms from the rest of the body, and it would happen if this kept on.

She had no choice, she swiftly kicked the face of the hell hound, letting it lose balance long enough for her to regain her weapon, and to smash it against one of the legs, a loud 'crunch' was heard, and the rocky leg broke in half like a twig! The monster howled in pain and anger, it was her chance, she could finish it off!  
Or so she thought. The rocky surface of the beast cracked off like a shell, and it all turned into a giant ball of fire, aiming directly at her! Took by surprise, she planted the hammer on the ground, a pink explosion set off and sent her back towards the other side of the room, the giant ball of fire passed through the second metal door, going back where it came from as the study burned down to a crisp.

"H-Haha..." she faintly laughed, her aura dissipating, her vision getting dimmer, _Oh...Look, they opened the door and ran out...Let's hope they'll get me._ The sound of Ren shouting the last thing she heard before passing out.

* * *

Nora slowly opened her eyes, and saw the outlines of multiple people surrounding her, she didn't move a muscle, enjoying the soft pillow under her head.

"Hey! She's waking up!" a familiar voice shouted, and the forms became more clear, her own team, along with team RWBY, was surrounding her and looking at her, Ren in particular was sitting beside her, and he jolted back slightly when he realized she was awake, the teams started to bombard her with "I'm so glad you're okay!" and various other phrases that got all mudded up with each other.

"Alright alright I get it!" she suddenly shouted, and everybody suddenly stopped, she took a deep breath and smiled, "Ain't nothing serious, really." she said, she attempted to sit up, but Ren immediately stopped her, "Get some rest, we'll take care of this for now." he stated, Nora looked at him and hesitantly nodded, laying back on the nursery's bed, closing her eyes.

Everyone remained silent for a minute or two, before Weiss spoke up, facing Jaune, "So, that 'study' burned down, right? So everything there was lost." she bluntly asked, crossing her arms, Jaune scratched the back of his neck and mumbled "I-I...Yes, well, not really...we managed to save one of them." he said, grabbing the slightly burned book hidden under his chest armor, showing it off to her.

"Wow, I'm...impressed" Weiss admitted as Blake approached and grabbed the book, looking down at the cover, "So, it's all coded, right?" she asked, flipping through the pages, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren nodded. "Just an idea, but...maybe this was one of the Insider's books, and that...thing down there was there to protect it in case someone got there." Yang suggested.

"Or destroy it all." Blake added, closing the book with a _thud_ , "Again, for now let's keep this to ourselves, if we give it to Ozpin this 'Insider' could know that we're after them."  
Yang sighed, "So you're going to try and decipher it all by yourself?" she asked, Ruby looked a bit worried, "Keeping it to ourselves does not really sound like a great idea either..."

Blake sighed, "All right, if anything goes bad, we go to Ozpin, okay?" she suggested. The rest nodded, some a bit more insecure about it than others.

"Still, we must be on guard, the Infiltrator must know that someone got into the secret room, they could try to silence us." she stated, and suddenly, the door opened, and there entered a familiar silver-haired man, who looks like he just ran a marathon  
"A-Ah! I'm here!" Polnareff exclaimed, holding onto the door for support, his arm was bleeding!

"A-A group of men attacked our secret house!"

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N.1: Just to gather information: What was your favorite fight in this fic up untill now? And why?  
> N.2: Fun Fact: The "Red Vox" was slightly inspired by the Watch Dog of the Old Lords from Bloodborne, so imagine that, but smaller and with the "Red Vox" mark.  
> N.3: Damn, I made a LOT of typos in this chapter, let me know if I missed anything.


	28. Hunted Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks a lot for the 1000 hits!

Jotaro ducked as the brute swung his axe towards him, Star Platinum appearing beside it and punching it in the armored back, but the hit was deflected by the Aura, resulting only in staggering the assailants.  
"Damn it, you just don't know when to stop, do you?" Jotaro asked as he jumped back, the hooded brute grinning and looking at him, "Hunters never let up until their prey is killed." he said, he was really big, about two meters in height, surpassing even Jotaro, and he was muscular too, but unlike Jotaro and the others, his muscles gave him more of a 'round' body, which was covered with a hood and a silver breastplate.

He gripped the axe with one hand, walking over to Jotaro, Star Platinum rushed over and tried to punch him a few times, but the man expertly blocked the hits with his axe, whoever this was, they knew their job well.

The assailants suddenly kicked up a foot, and started charging towards Jotaro, swing his axe downwards, Jotaro didn't even have time to breathe as his instincts kicked in, Star Platinum grabbed the chair of the desk he used to read in and tried to block the axe with it.  
The axe cut through the wood like it was butter, cutting it cleanly in half and only slightly slowing it down, for Jotaro a direct hit with that would have been fatal.  
Star Platinum threw the two halves towards the head of the assailant, which smashed against him and made him move backwards with a grunt.

"Hehe, it's useless." the bearded man laughed, and swung his axe multiple times towards Jotaro, giving him no choice but to dodge backwards, the axe slammed into the walls and the beds, slashing them and breaking them apart, until Jotaro was left blocked with his back behind the wall.  
The self-proclaimed hunter raised his axe and tried to smash Jotaro's head like a watermelon, but Jotaro quickly grabbed the blankets of one of the beds, throwing it towards the brute.  
The white blankets covered the assailant, who tried to struggle and getting it off him, Star Platinum quickly appeared in front of him, and started to throw a barrage of punches towards the disoriented foe.

The hunter was propelled backwards, and slammed on the other side of the room, crashing the floor. "Hehe, not bad, I almost felt that..." the hunter provoked, standing up and taking off the blanket. _This bastard just won't go down. Where the hell did Kakyoin go?_ He thought to himself, the huge hunter just suddenly smashed through the front door of the house without any warning, and Kakyoin suddenly was nowhere to be seen.  
There was no way he could defeat him alone and in such a closed space. Star Platinum dissapeared and Jotaro started to make a run for the door.

The hunter grinned as Jotaro came running towards his direction, he steadied himself and grabbed the axe with both hands, walking towards the front door "You won't escape." he stated, ready to strike once again, but Jotaro kept getting closer.  
The hunter's grip on his axe increased, and he started to pull on both ends of the weapon, one pulling the grip upwards and one downwards, _clack._ The axe increased in length, becoming large as a halberd.  
Jotaro's expression didn't change as the now-larger axe started to swing towards him, instead, he simply shouted: "STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!

The hunter's movements became slow as molasses, before stopping completely, one second. Star Platinum didn't waste any time appearing, and now being in range started to throw wild punches towards the foe's head. Three, four, five.  
Time resumed, and the hunter flew backwards and smashed through the opening of the door, leaving a round-shaped hole behind….and then smashed through the wall of the kitchen, also leaving a large hole behind.

* * *

Kakyoin breathed heavily, blood dripping from his body and face, his feet struggling to maintain balance on the roof of the shack. In front of him stood a thin, pale woman in a victorian-like outfit, holding a cane that ended in a pointy end, "My oh my, can't keep up with me?" she asked, blood-red lips twisting into a smile, her eyes yellow and full of madness.

Hierophant Green appeared behind the woman, its tail starting to quickly entangle around the body of the woman. But she was completely relaxed, her only reaction being lifting up her cane-holding arm and piercing the pointy tip inside the tail of the Stand, Kakyoin cried out in pain as his legs started to bleed, making him almost lose his balance.  
"Try as you might, your Stand can't match my speed." she simply said as she elbowed the Stand away, this was the last drop that made Kakyoin kneeled down, desperately holding onto the roof, "W-Who are you people?! Who do you work for?!" he shouted with desperation in his voice.

"Work?" Oh, dear, we don't work for anyone, we're volunteers." the assassin giggled and approached him with complete grace, "And to answer your question..." she started, pointing the tip of the cane at the throat of Kakyoin, "You can call us...The hunting squad, squalid name, isn't it? Should be 'Hunting Duo'." she trailed off, the point edging ever so closer to the base of his throat, drawing blood

He was left completely drain of energy, so much so that his Stand wouldn't even appear, his movements were sluggish, there was no way out of this situation. _Crash_ , the sound of a wall being smashed open resounded across the shack, throwing both of them off balance, "Ah!" the woman gasped, nearly losing grip of the cane, but kept being balanced enough to not fall off.  
Kakyoin wasn't so lucky, he rolled off the roof and fell on the grass like a sack of potatoes. "U-ugh..."

The woman peered down and sighed, "You're a dead man already. You're going to bleed out in about...fifteen minutes at most." she stated, and then she jumped back as the door slammed open, Jotaro rushing out and almost tripping over Kakyoin.  
"Ah, there you were." Jotaro calmly stated as he looked down at the bleeding Kakyoin. "J-Jotaro, the roof...there's an enemy up there." he exclaimed, but before he even could check, a familiar voice rang out.

"Don't worry, the cavalry's here!" the high-pitcher Ruby shouted, rushing towards them and holding Crescent Rose in both hands...And soon six other armed figures rushed towards the Stand Users: the rest of Team RWBY, and three of the members of Team JNPR.  
Jotaro smiled a little, as he ripped off a part of his white school uniform, and used it to cover the worst of Kakyoin's wounds.

The seven soon surrounded the shack, and just in time, as the big hunter smashed through the already smashed front door, almost giving Jaune a heart attack in the process, the hunter raised his axe to strike down the kneeled down Jotaro, but suddenly stopped, his eyes scanning the areas, "Ah, I see, you brought allies." the hunter laughed, stepping back, everyone's weapons pointed against him, "Well, this is unfortunate, seems like Fiore's already gone. I'll get you next time." he laughed.

He stepped back into the building, but before anyone could follow him inside, he was gone, vanished into thin air, "H-He teleported?" Weiss said in disbelief, putting her rapier down, but Ruby, with a serious look on her face, patted her back as if to say 'get a move on'.

"Who cares about that, more importantly..." she stated, pointing at the wounded Kakyoin.

* * *

A few hours later:

Either by luck or fate, both Nora and Kakyoin ended up sharing the same nursery room, which made discussing between everyone much easier, though they were a bit cramped in that room. "What I want to know is how they found out our hiding spot, no-one beside you all and Ozpin knows of that." said Jotaro, who was finally back to his old black uniform.

Blake crossed her arms, "The information must have been leaked somehow, but I have no idea on how that could happen."

"Someone could have one of us while we went to the hiding spot." Yang stated, sitting on a chair and crossing one leg over the other. "However it happened, it happened, and that shack isn't secure for you three any more." Ruby sighed, looking down and tapping her boot on the ground, looking a bit nervous.

"Does Ozpin know about this?" Polnareff asked, he really tried not to show it, but he was pretty damn scared.

"I think so, but haven't you seen the airships?" Weiss started. "Seems like General Ironwood of Atlas is going another special meeting with Professor Ozpin." and Pyrrha continued.

Ruby took another, heavy sigh, facing Jotaro, "So, what are you three going to do now…?" she asked.

Jotaro stood up, "We can't stay here at Beacon, it's too dangerous. We'll take Kakyoin and take him to a regular hospital, and then we'll see it from there, maybe in the city we can find more clues on who our enemies truly are."

"I...see, well, at least we'll be staying in contact, right?" Yang said all of the sudden, and Jotaro quirked an eyebrow as he looked back at her.

"Of course. But let's try to keep Scroll calls and messages to a minimum, the could be intercepting those." Jotaro replied, and he couldn't believe himself what he was saying, he got so used to this world that saying something out of a cheesy spy film would feel appropriate.

Nobody had anything against this idea, except the nurses, who tried to heavily argue against bringing Kakyoin out, but after quite a bit of time and a bit of patience, they managed to get him in the transferring list. After that, everyone walked out of the building, the sky was dark and full of stars, Jotaro would have thought this was a splendid night if he wasn't left practically homeless.

He spent a few silent moments looking up at the broken moon, before he heard a voice calling out to him, "Yo, Jotaro!"

This made him snap back , he quickly turned his head and looked back as the blonde girl ran up to him, stopping when right next to him, "So, I just wanted to ask...Since you're jobless and all of that, how would you feel if I offered you something to eat...out. W-wait, that sounded wrong, let me rephrase that..." the usually bubbly Yang was now acting shy, to the confusion of Jotaro.

"I get what you're asking, and there's no reason for me to refuse, is there?" he asked rhetorically.

"A-Ah." she coughed twice for scenic effect, "Ahem. 'Guess I'll see you around then!" she said, suddenly returning to her usual self, walking past Jotaro. "Oh, and by the way..." she started, turning her head back at him, "I dig the black uniform much more." she said with a wink, and walked away.

Jotaro blinked twice, more than a bit confused at all of this.

_Huh, weird._

* * *

General Ironwood paced back and forth Ozpin's office, before suddenly stopping and looking at the Headmaster sitting down on his desk, "Ozpin, you know I completely trust you, everybody does, but..." he started, his tone nervous "What the hell is happening?! Strange accidents happen in the main city, people are vanishing from villages in the borders, the attacks inside school grounds keep happening despite the high security, and now you're telling me the 'secret' hideout of your guests was attacked and destroyed?!" he shouted, smacking a fist on Ozpin's desk.

The headmaster kept a calm and collected expression, elbows on the desk and hands intertwined with one another. "Something that should not be happening, that's what is. don't know if it's her doing, but Vale is changing, and more Stand Users are cropping up seemingly without reasons, and I know if it's not stopped, this will spread to every corner of Remnant."

"Those are not soothing words I'm hearing." Ironwood calmed down and sighed, stepping away from the desk, "I hope you know what you're doing." he stated, turning around with the intention of walking away.

Ozpin watched him walk away in silence, until Ironwood turned around, "I also heard that Qrow is bringing us another Stand User. I hope you don't mind, but this school is too dangerous for that, once they come here I'll take the user under mine and Atlas's custody."

Ozpin looked like he wanted to speak up, but in the end he just nodded, "If you ensure his protection, there's no reason for me to refuse."

The doors of the elevator opened up, and Ironwood silently entered.

By chance or fate, while Ironwood and his guards were walking back to the airships, they had the pleasure to encounter a lone Jotaro, heading out of the school ground, Ironwood recognized him immediately, and slowly approached him.

"So, you must be 'Jotaro Kujo', right?" he stated, Jotaro turned around with a 'Hm?' at the sound of his name.  
"Yeah, you called it, that's my name, and who are you again?" he stated, at those words Ironwood reached his gloved arm out to him, waiting for him to shake it.  
"I'm General James Ironwood, Headmaster of Atlas Academy, it's a...pleasure, to meet you." he said, but his expression showed he wasn't being friendly. Jotaro looked at Ironwood's hand, and hesitantly shook it, it felt cold to the touch, much like the prosthetic hand of his grandpa.

"As far as I've heard, you 'Stand' Users are magnets for trouble" he squinted his eyes, looking at Jotaro with distrust "And also as far as I've heard, that's all you brought to this academy." Jotaro sighed and placed his hands inside his pockets, "Oh, trust me, you won't have to worry, I was just about to get the hell out of this place."

The news seemed to shock Ironwood, "You're getting out of here without warning anyone?" he asked.

"The ones who should know, know it. Now, General, I think I'll go." the stone-faced Stand User affirmed, and turned around, walking away.

Ironwood was left a bit speechless, he placed to finger on his forehead as he and his guards walked away, "I can't wait to go back to Atlas, this day has been way to stressful."

* * *

 The two hunters kneeled before the hooded man, who lightly tapped two fingers on their heads, before backing away. "I see, I see! Don't worry my dear hunters, a hunter must know their prey's strong and weak points, right? So, now that you know of their powers, I don't doubt it'll go splendidly next time."

The large hunter remained kneeling, looking at the ground and muttering something akin to a prayer under his breath, but the female hunter named Fiore turned her head up, "Master, if I may..." she started, at those words the master turned his head, facing her.

"Is it really wise to become allies of that...being? We're dealing with non-human forces here, and that Salem could destroy us if we keep our guard down." the young woman asked.

The master laughed, and approached the hunter, putting a hand over her head, "Dear, dear Fiore, our duty is to become greater than humans, and what better teacher than someone who has transcended humanity completely?"

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1.I was a bit hesitant to add this borderline crackship in this fic, so I hope this chapter didn't piss off too many people. However, if it's going to further developed is yet to be seen, don't worry, this is still a story-based fic.  
> 2\. As a sidenote, I've truly opened up WAAAY too many plot-points, I think it's time to start resolving some of them


	29. Vagabonds

"Great, now we're bums!" Polnareff shouted, a bag of all the things they managed to save slung over his shoulder. The three were walking down an empty street of the main city, the moon still looming over them.

"We neither can afford apartments or hotels, and Polnareff is out of a job since he can't easily and safely reach Beacon." Kakyoin lamented, "First thing tomorrow, get a part-time job, all of us, and hopefully one that does not gather a lot of attention."

"And what do you suggest?" Jotaro asked, Kakyoin crossed his arms and looked downwards, continuing to walk. "To be perfectly honest, I don't know, but first we must find somewhere safe to sleep, then we'll think about it."

"I imagine sleeping under a bridge wouldn't be that safe." Polnareff sighed, "Oh, I know! Ruby and Yang's dad is in Vale, how about we ask him for help?"

"Yeah, he's surely going to let three complete strangers with them because we know his daughters, it's more likely he's going to deck us in the face" Kakyoin brought a hand to his face and stopped, resting his back on a building, "Anyone else has an idea?"  
The others stopped and looked at him, the three remained in silence for a little while, until Jotaro looked up, "The roofs."

"The roofs?" Kakyoin repeated, the other two stand users looked at Jotaro, a bit at a loss for words. "What's difficult to understand? We're gonna sleep on the roofs." he said, looking to the top of the tall apartment Kakyoin was resting his back on.  
"I have several questions, but first of all, how do we even get up there?" Polnareff asked, "Second, I don't know the laws of this kingdom, but I'm pretty sure we" would get arrested if we did that in our world."

Jotaro brushed past Polnareff, and slowly circled around the building, until he found a set of emergency stairs. He signed the two to follow him as he tried to go up the stairs as silently as possible, but due to his sheer weight and how noisy the steps were, it was completely impossible.

"Let's not wake the entire apartment up, please." Kakyoin whispered as he stepped up the stairs with Jotaro

"This is such a horrible idea." Polnareff said as he took hesitant baby steps on the stairs, "I'm going to get gray hair from all the stress you all bring for the simplest crap..."

"Polnareff, you already have gray hair." Kakyoin pointed out

"It's a figure of speech. And it's silver, damn it!"

After a while, they miraculously managed to get on the roof and not wake anyone up in the process. The roof was wide and mostly empty, beside a few antennas on the borders, and a cube-shaped room placed in the middle, with a door attached with the sign "Emergency Stairs" laid on top of it.

"This is...incredibly dangerous, we could be easily spotted from here." Kakyoin pointed out, but Polnareff was already in the middle of taking out the improvised bedrolls.  
"For one night, this will do." Jotaro stated,

* * *

Dio tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair, smiling slightly as purple thorns entangled with the modern television in front of him, the television turned on and changed various channels, mixing various words together in order to recreate a phrase:

_**REFUGELESS THEY ARE. THE SPY WILL ACT.** _

The thorns dissapeared, and the television shut off. "Hahaha." Dio softly laughed, "Soon, I'll have my revenge...The blood may have healed my wound slightly, but it pains me to admit I can't win yet. I still need 'that', and the promised day has yet to happen. For now I'll need to slow down The Door's minions so they won't be a problem."

This was one of the reasons why he, or The Door, couldn't send out assassins more often, more often than not the two had some 'inconveniences' caused by the assassins of the other..

It wasn't an all out conflict, in fact the two of them were sure these 'accidents' never reached Salem or her acting hands.

"But that woman...Cinder, she could become dangerous. If she manages to get the power of the 'Maiden', she might thwart my plans." he mused.

He placed one leg on top of the other, and touched the wound passing through his chest, "Now is not the time."

* * *

"Heey, Ruby! Wake up!" Weiss shouted up at Ruby, who was still tuckered up in the upper bunk bed. Yang sighed as she grabbed a pillow from her own bed, and threw it towards her little sister at high speed, and it impacted against her back.

"Ow, ow! I'm awake, jeez." Ruby grabbed the pillow and threw it back at Yang, who didn't even have to dodge it as it fell on the ground.

Weiss crossed her arms "Come on, we're going to be late for class, Blake already went on without us"

Despite those words, Ruby gave the two teammates her back as she kept laying on the bed, Weiss brought a hand to her forehead and sighed. "Go ahead, Weiss. Me and Ruby will have a little talk." Yang said, Weiss felt a little hesitant, but after a few seconds she turned heel and walked out of the dormitory.

Yang climbed onto the bed, sitting beside Ruby, "Feelin' a little under the weather?" she asked, Ruby looked at her for a second before turning around again, "I guess..."

"You're worried about those three, huh?" Yang asked. An awkward silence filled the room before Ruby sat up, and brought her knees close to her chest. "Not only that..." she started, a sad look on her face, "So much...stuff is happening so quickly, so many mysteries, so many enemies, I don't know if we are suited to take care of all of this."

Yang was a bit surprised to hear those words coming from her sister, "Oh, come on, we're supposed to be heroes, right? And heroes always win and make the world better, or did you forget that?" she promptly replied.

Ruby quirked a smile, but still looked down "I know, I know, it's just been...stressful. Considering that we are being targeted too, I don't know if we'll be able to have a regular school life. Dad knows nothing of this either."

She looked up at Yang, "How can you and the others not be stressed? You act like everything is normal while the most bizarre stuff in our lives happened one after the other."

Yang hesitated to reply, suddenly feeling a weight on her chest, "I...Guess some people are just better at hiding it, stress, I mean."

Ruby smiled, and suddenly sat up and jumped off the bed, landing on her feet, "Well, let's go, today we've got combat training, and we gotta be prepared for all the baddies that will come our way!" she stated, back to her usual, bubbly, almost childish self.  
Yang smiled back, "Heh, and I was even a bit worried for you for a second."

* * *

"So, where do we start lookin'?" Polnareff asked, sitting on the ground of the spacious roof. Kakyoin slightly looked over the edge of the building, arms crossed, "I'd like to have a clear answer to that, but...I don't. I don't know how it works here, but we and Jotaro are still minors, we'd get part-time jobs at most, while you on the other hand…I just don't know what you'd be able to do."

Polnareff sighed, "Can you stop with that demoralizing stuff? We're already in a bad situation, a bit of positive thinking would be nice." then, he looked over at Jotaro, who was looking at the ground silent, "What's up? You look like you want to say something."

"I do?" Jotaro looked up, "Well, I guess. I just thought about how to gain some money and work to finding out the truth at the same time."

Kakyoin quirked an eyebrow, curious "Really? Well, spit it out."

"Monster hunting." Jotaro simply stated with a completely straight face. The others looked at him completely surprised.

"Are you kiddin' me? We are not trained for that kind of stuff! Especially not me!" Polnareff shouted, Kakyoin quickly shushed him, afraid that someone will hear them making a ruckus on the roof.

"Listen up, monster hunting would not only give us experience in fighting, it'd also give us an excuse to search around Vale. Maybe we'd even be able to find Dio, or that Door guy, or whatever the hell those Silver Records guys are."

Kakyoin closed his eyes in thought, "Wishful thinking. But... it could theoretically work, I say we give it a go."

Polnareff frowned, "We aren't even proper Huntsmen, but fine, I'll go along with it for now."

* * *

As big and busy the city of Vale was, it only took them a few hours to find their first job at the outskirts of the city, a family of farmers heard some weird noises coming from the nearby forest, and believed it would be due to Grimm.

After showing off their Stands to the farmers, they agreed to hire them, and so they entered through the woods.

"Man, I don't know about this. Using my Stand like this feels...weird." Polnareff complained, pushing away a branch from his face.

Kakyoin shushed him, "Be quiet, whatever is in here could hear us"

Jotaro suddenly stopped, Star Platinum appeared beside him, and before the others two could react, Star Platinum quickly punched a tree in front of Jotaro, making it fall!

Kakyoin was about to ask him what the hell he was doing, until he heard a dog-like whimpering coming from under the fallen trunk, and black smoke. "Huh, it was just one of those Beowolves, I thought I heard something strange. Oh well, let's keep going, there might be more."

"Wow." Kakyoin and Polnareff exclaimed in unison.

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1: Sorry for the shorter, rather uneventful chapter, just been busy these days. On another note, I'm trying a more spaced out style, tell me if you prefer this over the previous style or not


	30. Rogue Rose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for making this before starting the chapter, I know people don't like reading long author notes, I don't either, however this is important: I noticed that there's been a lack of response in these times, on both websites (Especially on Archive), I do appreciate the people who comment and commented, and I do appreciate every follow or favourite, however I'm seeing a lack of the most important stuff: Comments and reviews.
> 
> Long story short: If you like, or don't like, this story, please leave a comment or review, it does not have to be a 400 word analysis, just a comment even in anon will do. Think of it as tipping me, the writer, but instead of paying me with money you do it with words.
> 
> Having said that, let's continue the story

"Still, I can't believe you recovered so damn quickly, Kakyoin. We got out of Beacon and suddenly you were up and ready, are you sure you have the energy to do this?" Polnareff asked, sitting on a rock, Jotaro suggested to wait around for the Grimm to come to them, in order to conserve energy.

"I'm a bit cranky, but hopefully my Stand won't be affected." he stated, unconsciously putting a hand over the leg he was injured in.

"Mmmmm..." Polnareff stared at him, tapping a finger on his chin, thinking, "If you say so, just don't push yourself. Your Stand isn't exactly the most fighting oriented Stand.

Kakyoin's scarred eyed went wide with surprise, "Wow, thanks, Polnare-" before he could finish his name, Jotaro shushed him, he was standing up, looking at the expansive forest in front of him.

"I hear something, it's big." he stated, the other two went silent as they started to listen, there was a sudden rustling of leaves, which became louder and louder.

Without warning, two giant snake heads suddenly appeared through the trees, and lunged at them!

"W-What the hell?! How did we not notice this thing before?!" Polnareff shouted, Silver Chariot immediately appearing and pointing its reaper at them. Kakyoin, the closest to the creature, jumped backwards as the giant fangs nearly chewed him.

"A-Ah! I've heard of this! It's a King Taijitu!" he shouted, taking steps back. But Jotaro could tell there was something strange, he also heard and read of this Grimm, however, King Taijitus were black and white in colour, however this one seemed to have strange red scales forming on both heads, the eyes glowing a deeper red than normal.

"This one's dangerous, I know it." Jotaro stated, loud enough for the others to hear. The black head turned towards him, while the white head turned towards Polnareff and Kakyoin

The two heads hissed as they lunged forward, intent on devouring them. Jotaro jumped a tree for cover, not yet having summoned his Stand, the cover seemed to have worked, as the snake bit the tree and snapped the tree trunk in half. "Good, eat the wood, you idiot." he mocked, Star platinum appearing and it punched the remaining tree towards the head of the snake, making it smash on top of it.

That didn't seem to have much of an effect, however. The black head hissed and retracted, only sustaining a bruise from the heavy weight impacting.

At the same time, the white head was giving the other two Stand Users a bit of trouble: It was biting continuously at them in a tiring speed, not allowing them to counter and forcing them to dodge back.

"D-Damn it, let's split!" Polnareff shouted as he jumped sideways, and so did Kakyoin...which resulted him falling on his behind. "A-Aargh!" he shouted, gripping on his leg.

The white head did not hesitate, it lunged straight for the downed Kakyoin, "K-Ka-!" Polnareff couldn't even finish his phrase:

Everything seemed to go slow-motion for Kakyoin, the head lunging at him, the tree smacking onto the other head, Polnareff's Stand trying to move towards him and defend him.

_S-So...It ends like this?_ He couldn't help but think, in his journey with the Joestars he risked his life and brushed death quite a few times, but he never thought he'd be eaten by a giant snake.

Without him even realizing, his Stand appeared on top of him, hands in a prayer-like position as the snake-like green Stand looked at the King Taijitu.

Green liquid started to form in its hands, he slowly started to separate its hands as more and more liquid started to flow out, he was attacking without even realizing it.

But, unexpectedly for everyone, the liquid energy started to form into a cone, with the edge pointed at the grimm, it quickly started to get bigger and bigger, before becoming as thick and long as Kakyoin's arms!

This was, by far, the biggest projectile he created, he didn't even realize he could make them of this size, it was like...a cannon's shot.

_Cannon…_

Kakyoin took a deep breath, and then shouted, " _Emerald Cannon!_ "

The arm-sized projectile shot out at incredibly speed, and collided with the underside of the Grimm's mouth. A loud cracking sound was heard by everyone present as the green projectile smashed through the mouth, the two sides of the Emerald Cannon stuck on the head, one side from the nose and the other from mouth's underside.

The King Taijitu hissed loudly and both heads retreated, making its distance from the group. "Holy crap! What the hell did you just do?!" Polnareff shouted, rushing over to Kakyoin and helping him up, giving him his shoulder to make him not fall back.

As a response, Kakyoin started laughing, "But of course! It was so obvious! I always concentrated the energy in many small shots, not realizing I could concentrate all of that energy into a single big one!"

But there was no time to celebrate this discovery, Jotaro quickly rushed over to them as a voice rang out in the forest, it was the voice of a girl, a young one at that, "Oh damn it all to hell!" the source of the voice was...behind the grimm.

"What's a girl gotta do in order to get some sacrifices, huh?" a small girl jumped from the bushes, and landed on the giant snake's back with complete easy, the snake didn't seem to react at all.

The girl was wearing a black-and-brown robe a bit too big for her, completely covering her feet, her face and body was incredibly young-looking, like the one of a ten year old, though her voice indicated more someone in their teens.

"Who the hell are you?!" Jotaro asked, also taken by surprise by this sudden appearance.

The girl lifted her chin up and frowned, the injured grimm undulating menacingly, "Why should I reply to maggots like you? In an ideal situation you three would have already been food for my little Queen here."

"But seriously, first that guy with strange hair, and now you three weirdos, are these 'Stands' so widespread? Our great leader warned us about people like you, too." she asked, putting one leg over the other under the robe

"Look at that!" Polnareff pointed at her chest, Jotaro had the feeling he was about to say something very inconvenient, but after he pointed it out he noticed too:

A white circle on the robe, the same symbol of the Silver Records.

"Hehe, you noticed, it seems you three are not complete idiots. Yes, I'm part of the great Silver Records, and you better tremble in fear of my Guardian!" she shouted, petting the body of the snake, "But not now, she must regenerate."

She quickly jumped off the snake, and the Grimm dissapeared in a red light "Until we meet again, maggots." she laughed, and she quickly too dissapeared.

"So, uh...mission accomplished?" Polnareff stated completely confused, Silver Chariot gradually disappearing..

"Let's get the hell out of here and get our reward, the others must know of this too." Jotaro said, turning around and heading from where they came from, until the three heard something vibrate in Kakyoin's uniform, Jotaro raised an eyebrow, "It must be your Scroll."

* * *

Team RWBY went on their day as usual: went to classes, had some spars at the school's arena, eat at the cafeteria, a rather normal day despite its bumpy start. None of them spoke about what happened during the previous days, all of them having silently decided to take their minds off it for a while.

But, as they would quickly discover, trouble would just keep following them.

Team JNPR had come back to the dormitory after the school day ended, Nora was still in the infirmary recovering from the fiery fight the other day, and her lack of presence showed, the Team was quite more silent than usual.

That is, until Jaune looked at the room and had a sudden nervous breakdown, and started to suddenly turn the entire dormitory upside-down, "A-Ah! Where is it?! I-It can't be! After all the trouble we went!"

Ren and Pyrrha stared at the scene in shock, "A-Ah, calm down, Jaune! What did you lose?" Pyrrha tried to stay gentle and calm, but just looking at him quickly searching every nook and cranny of the room made her feel anxious.

He quickly faced her, hands on his hair, "T-The book! The one from underground! It's gone! A-And it was right here when I woke up this morning!" he looked like he was about to cry, Pyrrha quickly ran over to him and placed a gloved hand on his cheek, "C...Calm down, take a deep breath." Pyrrha took a deep breath, and Jaune mimicked.

It seemed to have worked, Jaune's body slightly relaxed, "C-Could it have been stolen?" he timidly asked. Pyrrha took a few steps back, and looked at Ren, silently asking for his opinion.

"It's...probable, whoever wrote that book knows it was missing and someone tried to take it. But how would they know we took it? It's not like anyone saw us there." he replied

"Except...that grimm-like fire hound." Pyrrha pointed out, "But that would bring more question than it answers, that would mean somebody can 'control' and even 'communicate' with that creature, and if it's a grimm like I think it is, it would simply be impossible."

"W-Well, no matter how it happened, it happened, and whoever took it didn't want us to decipher it. It could be that 'insider'." Jaune regained a bit of composure, and brought a hand up at his aching head.

Pyrrha nodded, her red ponytail bobbing up an down "We need to call Team RWBY and inform them, we can't do much by ourselves."

* * *

An hour later:

The seven gathered at the gates of the school, "We just can't have a single day of peace, can we?" Weiss rhetorically asked, massaging her forehead.

"It has to be in that secret place! It's obvious that whoever stole it brought it back!" Ruby shouted with conviction.

"Where? To a burned down study?" Blake asked bitterly, out of all of Team RWBY she was the one that was the most bothered by this theft.  
"Well...No, of course not! I mean that other metal door under there! I'm sure that if we can find our way in, we will find the book!"

"And what makes you so sure it hasn't been destroyed already, assuming it was brought there?" Weiss replied, Ruby seemed like she was about to talk back, but hesitated.  
"I-It must be there..." she muttered, a hand resting at the side of her head, "We must go, or else we'll keep being in danger, whoever stole the book may go after our lives next!"

"You have a point, but...There's simply no evidence it's there, and there's that creature that wounded Nora...It's too dangerous." Jaune was sitting on the grass, legs crossed.

At those words, a spark could be seen in Ruby's silver eyes, "There's no time to search around! We must go!" she stated, looking back at her team.

Weiss raised an eyebrow at her, "No, no we aren't." she coldly stated.

"B-But..." she stubbornly tried to make up an argument, Yang quietly walked over to her and placed a hand on her head, "Calm down, why are you so convinced?"

"B-Because..." Ruby's head started to suddenly ache, why did she have that feeling? She tried to ask herself how she could come up with that idea, but she could not answer it, but the feeling remained.

Ruby moved away from Yang…And suddenly she dissapeared in a storm of rose petals, leaving everyone wide-eyed, "She's running away!" Pyrrha shouted.

"T-That idiot!" Weiss shouted, and a second after Yang started to run after Ruby, who was quickly going out of sight, Blake and Weiss followed.

"Call Kakyoin, see if he's around there somewhere!" Blake ordered back at Weiss, who nodded and quickly got her Scroll out, breathing heavily as she ran and composed the number.

* * *

The three Stand Users started to walk out of the forest, Polnareff helping up the injured Kakyoin as he quickly replied to the call.

"Who is it?" quickly asked Polnareff, Kakyoin shushed him and held the Scroll to his ear.

"H-Hey! I thought you were never going to pick up!" Weiss shouted from the other end of the call, still running.

"I see you're doing well, Ice Princess."

"Don't call me that." she flatly answered

"Sorry, sorry, I just hear the others calling you that all the time, so I thou-"

"Enough with the small talk! We got an issue here!" she quickly cut him off

"An issue?" Kakyoin repeated, resulting in Polnareff raising a brow

"Ruby has suddenly gone rogue! She won't listen to us and decided to go to that secret underground place!"

Kakyoin hesitated to reply, processing what he just heard, "Are we talking about _that_ Ruby? It's difficult for me to believe she would stray from the team like this."

"I don't get it either, but now is not the time for that, so, can you three come to the commercial district to help us find her or not?" Weiss asked, running out of patience

"That would be...not possible." he admitted, and those words made even Jotaro turn around in curiosity.

"What? Why?! Where are you three?!" she shouted.

The three finally reached the end of the woods, the farm distant, but in sight, "...In the outskirts of the town. We had to find some unorthodox jobs." he confessed

Weiss sighed, "Whatever, at least I tried, now if you'll excuse me I have a little red pest to run after!" she quickly hang up.

"Just what the hell were you talking about?" Jotaro asked, a look of curiosity in his eyes.

"I'll tell you after we get paid and out of here."

* * *

Ruby darted through the cars and pedestrians like a giant red bullet, startling people and clogging up the traffic, her heart pumped through her chest full of adrenaline as she kept dashing, it was tiring to use her Semblance continuously, but she didn't care, at that moment she only thought about how to get there.

She entered the alley in the commercial district, just as Polnareff described her, in there was a loose manhole covered by empty boxes. She held onto the boxes and started to breathe in and out quickly, catching her breath as sweat ran down her forehead.

"Why...am I doing this?" she asked herself, but even though she could yet again not answer herself, she had no choice but to keep going. After a few seconds she pushed the boxes away and pulled up the manhole, "No turning back now..." she muttered, and jumped down.

[To Be Continued]-->


	31. The Insider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: This chapter is probably the most disturbing chapter I've posted yet, while I'm sure most people who watched/read JJBA won't find it that extreme, I'm putting up this disclaimer just in case

Ruby closed her eyes and tried to steady herself as she tumbled down the downward tunnel, she inevitably reached the end, and was flung into the air by the momentum, "A-Aaah!" she shouted as she grabbed Crescent Rose, which was in the much more portable rifle mode, and held onto it for dear life.

 _Bang_ ,

She impacted against the ground like a cannonball, creating a wave of dust inside the cavern, Ruby slowly stood up and coughed, dusting off her red and black dress.

"U-Ugh, where is it…?" she asked half dazed, her head turning around, before finding the out of place metal door.

Ruby didn't hesitate as she approached it, the door creaked open as she pushed it, revealing a scene straight out of a disaster:

The whole place was burnt down, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it all turned to ashes. Some books laid on the ground, burnt beyond recognition and with still some embers burning on the covers, they would probably crumble just by touching them.

A shiver went up her spine as she took a step in, she pulled up the hoodie over her head and walked inside, the other, burnt-looking door in front of her.

Ruby pushed and pulled on the door, but nothing happened, Ruby sighed and tried to have a look around, she alone couldn't bust it down, but there had to be another way of getting in, she kneeled down over a pile of completely blackened books and started to push them off, "Key, key...card….?"

 _Key card? Why did I say that? And...why is it so familiar?_ She thought, it felt as if there was a huge hole in her head, leaving her unable to recall something.

She stood up, and walked over to the walls covered in ash, she placed her hands on it and started to move away the dust, and she noticed something, between the space of two bricks, there was a larger than normal opening.

She placed her hand inside, "Hmm…?", she felt something, something thin and small, about the size of her palm, she quickly grasped it and pulled her hand back, and looked down at it.

A black plastic card, with a silver circle in the middle, and nothing else.

How couldn't it have burned down like anything else? The only explanation is that it was placed there later by someone. The idea made Ruby more hopeful and she approached the door. "Now, where should this go…." she asked herself, "Does not seem to be anywhere I can put it, do I just have to..."

She smacked the card on the metal door.

And nothing seemed to happen, Ruby shook her head and was about to back away. Until she heard a loud _beep_ , and the door quickly slammed open!

She was so surprised that she jumped back and took out Crescent Rose in its scythe form. She gripped it tightly as she peered beyond the door.

It was a long and wide hallway made of stone, the walls were slightly burned, though not at the level of the room, as far as she could tell, the ground curved slightly downwards, going deeper. "Might as well try."

She ran inside the hallway, holding the scythe with one hand and letting it hang from her side.

 _I knew it, it must be here_ She thought, smiling slightly at the thought of finding it and proving her team she was right.

As she thought back to her team, a deep feeling of regret and guilt welled up in her chest, she bit down on her lip and repressed those thoughts, "I will find it." she stated to herself.

The hallway went down and down, seemingly without end and with just some lanterns hanging from the walls to illuminate the surroundings.

Then, to break the silence, she heard a distant but loud growl coming from ahead. Her muscles tensed up, _This must be the thing guarding this place!_

Scythe at the ready, she continued on, the hallway stopped to go downwards, and finally the end of it was in sight, and it was locked by yet another door. The growl grew louder, she hesitantly stepped forward and the growl grew louder, but her ears noticed something.

 _There are...two growls_ she noted, but as soon as she got in front of the door, both of them suddenly stopped. The silence made it even worse for Ruby, she would not feel threatened if she was with her team, but at the moment she was all alone, how could she not be scared?

She tried opening it, and surprisingly for her it gave in, opening up.

The first thing she noticed was the man standing in the middle of the prison-like room, staring down at her.

He was tall and slim, and had a nervous look to him, his face pale as his body shivered seemingly without reason, his eyes continuously looking at her up and down. He was wearing a maroon Beacon uniform, and for some reason, Ruby had the feeling that she already met him before.

"H-How? Hooow?!" he shouted, bringing his hands into his hair, "How could you have possibly found me here so soon?!" his desperate voice brought a cold sweat down Ruby's back. He started biting down hard on his fingers, drawing blood, "Hoooooow?!"

"Y-You!" Ruby pointed at him, the blanks in her memory suddenly filling up "Now...Now I remember!"

* * *

It might have been because of a bad dream, too much worrying, or fate's whimsy, but Ruby found herself waking up exactly at midnight. She sat up, stretched her arms, and looked down at her sleeping teammates, she then quickly opened up her Scroll and looked at the time.

 _I...Should probably go back to sleep._ Before she could even lay her head back to the pillow, she heard a sudden noise coming from above, it was extremely faint, she probably wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't completely silent around her.

A few seconds passed, and Ruby's curiosity grew, she quickly went down her bunk bed and put on some slippers, still in her Pjs. "Was it from the roof?" she asked herself, and quickly but silently stepped out of the room.

She slowly went up the stairs until she arrived near the roof, and what she saw there…

Three figures were in a circle, one tall and pale, and in a student uniform, another in a hood that completely enveloped him, and the other was much more familiar, the bowler hat and the hair were a giveaway, it was Roman Torchwick himself.

At the sight, she quickly hid behind the door of the roof, and silently eavesdropped on them:

"Are you sure nobody can hear us?" Roman asked, holding his cane down with both hands.

"Y-Yes, I'm completely sure." the tall student nervously said.

"Are you doubting us, Mister Torchwick?" the hooded man said, in a deep voice, "I thought you could safely trust us once he managed to sneak you in without problem."

"If I doubt you or not does not matter. My contact told me to check up on him, I've heard that something quite unpleasant happened." Roman said, pointing at the student.

Silence filled the air, until the hooded man turned to the student, "Tell him, Lupus." he simply stated.

"M-My hideout got discovered, I had to destroy all evidence, but then I noticed that the most important book was missing, I-I wasn't planning to destroy it, of course, I would have took it with me and awaited fo-"

"Cut to the chase" Roman interrupted him, "We don't have much time."

Lupus's head hung low, "It got stolen by the intruders, b-but I know who they are! I can safely get it tomorrow morning!"

"Uh-huh, and where do you plan to keep it? Cinder told me that if someone deciphered it, it would bring your entire little cult in trouble." Roman asked, Lupus looked at the hooded man, who nodded slightly, before speaking

"In the hideout, the intruders w-wouldn't dare to go there again after what happened. P-Plus, I've hidden the key card inside the hideout itself."

Silence once again, the hooded man turned to Roman, "Do you trust us now? We shared the truth with you, nothing but the truth."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever. Now I need to get out of here and relay this information to her, feels like I'm being watched just staying here, and I can't just disappear in a flash like you people do."

"T-That would be i-impo-" Lupus was about to say, until…

Ruby kept all of her attention to the discussion, and due to her very sleepy state, didn't even notice when she started to fall back from sheer exhaustion.

The fall made enough of a ruckus for all of them to hear, a look of shock formed on Lupus's face as he ran towards the source.

This is where the memory starts to get more and more hazy, she remembers being grabbed, unable to escape, she then sensed something pressed against her mouth and not letting her scream, a napkin with a strange liquid that Ruby breathed in, her eyelids growing heavier and heavier.

_Prepared for this...not going to even notice….put her to bed….going to forget…._

She only heard bits and pieces of the conversation until she fell into a forgetful sleep.

* * *

Lupus started to shout maniacally, "NO! NO! IT CAN'T BE! I'LL ELIMINATE YOU! ELIMINATE! ELIMINAAATE!" he screamed in such a way that chilled Ruby to the bone, the grip on her scythe went tighter as Lupus suddenly went down on all fours.

"RED VOOOOX!" he howled in desperation, his face went even paler, like that of a corpse, his eyes blackened and his body started to shake uncontrollably, he went completely feral.

Beside him, a ball of fire formed, that quickly grew in size, forming into a big canine that growled in unison with Lupus. Ruby has never experienced anything like this in her life, even the most recent assassination attempts didn't give off such malice and murderous intent.

Not wasting a moment, Red Vox charged like a cannonball towards Ruby, it was incredibly fast, equally as fast as Ruby, she jumped to the side and slammed the scythe towards the fiery monster, but Red Vox raised a front leg and parried the attack with enough force to send her back.

 _I don't get it! Is this a Stand or a grimm?!_ She balanced herself into position as both Lupus and Red Vox started to circle around her like starving beasts, one dripping drool from his mouth, and one dripping red hot fire.

Her eyes darted back and forth to the two, _Who? Who should I attack?_ She asked to herself. She held her weapon in front of her as the two attacked, both attempting to claw her. Even Lupus himself was incredibly quick, _too_ quick for his state, his raw strength was impressive too, as the double strike sent her flying to the wall!

"D-Damn it..." she cursed, she already tired herself going there, she wasn't able to fight at full efficiency, especially not in such a restricted space as this.

The walls of the room were filled with chains that seemed straight out of a horror film, slight splatters of blood also covered the floor and walls. _What did these people do here?_ Was the question that popped in her mind, _No! Now it's not the time to think about that!_

She used Crescent Rose to help her up, breathing heavily. Some bruises already started to appear on her body, showing that her Aura was weakening. A determined look showed in her face, she quickly jumped in the air, pointed it at Lupus, and pressed the trigger.

Lupus didn't even make an attempt to dodge it, the bullet hit him square in the chest, making him reel back from the force, however the shot was deviated by an invisible force, confirming Ruby's suspect.

_He's not a Stand User, that monster does not seem affected from the shot at all either!_

She landed on top of the fire-filled monster, and ignoring the burning sensation at her feet, wrapped the edge of the scythe against Red Vox's throat, ready to pull the trigger.

Lupus screamed and started to quickly run at her at full speed, but no matter how fast he could go, there was no way he could stop her. Or so she thought.

He dissapeared into a flash of light, right in front of Ruby. "W-What?!" this made her hesitate for just a second, enough time for him to appear again behind her!

"AAAAAGH!" he let out a bestial scream as he grabbed Ruby's hood and throw her off the monster, sending her flying like a baseball towards the other side of the wall. Ruby slammed the scythe to the ground, slowing her down and letting her feet to touch the ground.

The ground set out sparks as chunks of rocks were cut away, but in a few second Ruby managed to stop before hitting the wall, Lupus was panting and gasping, whatever he did must have tired him out.

She too was taking heavy breaths, she gritted her teeth in frustration and stubbornness, Lupus and Red Vox were approaching, and Ruby couldn't do anything else but back away towards the wall. Then, Red Vox charged again, _What can I do? What can I do? What can I do?_ She quickly repeated in her head, however, in that moment of panic, she noticed something:

Red Vox's flames weren't particularly strong, no way near as a blazing inferno like Team JNPR described it to be, possibly because it wasn't actively trying to burn the entire room down, and she managed to step on it quite easily, she could use that to her advantage.

She turned the barrel of the scythe so it faced the wall and pressed the trigger, the force of the shot sent her flying forward towards Red Vox, it barked as the bullet-fast Ruby darted next to its head and pressed her foot on its face, Ruby's hood fell back, completely revealing her head, she smirked as she held the scythe-gun backhanded, not to lose momentum she pressed the trigger again, blasting off chunks of Red Vox's rock armor as she was propelled towards the frenzied insider.

Lupus quickly stood on his legs and crossed his arms in front of his face, Ruby shouted in pure adrenaline as she sliced sideways with Crescent Rose, an attack that would have sliced in half a regular human.

Lupus was pushed back and rolled on the ground, still visibly alive, however…

There was a big cut on Lupus's chest that was gushing out blood, his Aura must have been weaker than Ruby predicted, as the hit managed to mostly pierce it and shatter it.

"G-Guh..." Lupus coughed up heavy amounts of blood, Ruby freezed up in horror, her pupils going wide. She was already not used to seeing human blood, but seeing this, and causing this, was on a much higher level than that, it was completely devastating for her young mind.

Red Vox, still active, sneaked up on her and raised his front claws behind her, and Lupus's mouth crooked up into a smile as his eyes dilated.

"W-Wha.." Ruby mouthed in disbelief, it was almost like the sight of the bleeding Lupus had her disconnected from reality, mostly unaware of what was happening.

"Ruby! Ruby! Ruby!"

Three distinct voices called out to her.

Her head turned to the wide open door as Red Vox's claws was centimetres away from her, "Yang..? Weiss..? Blake..?"

[To Be Continued]-->


	32. Cornered Wolf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, finally this fic is moving forward! Though it's still a long way till the endgame arrives.

The sounds of footsteps echoed across the room, getting ever closer to the room, Ruby couldn't even properly see the silhouettes of her teammates before a blue light grazed past her like a bullet, colliding against the beast behind it.

"Got it!" Weiss shouted, white runes glowing across her rapier as she took steps inside the room. Red Vox whined and was pushed back, it turned its head towards the advancing group of Huntresses, snarling in mad fury, ice crystal running across the side of his face.

Ruby had her mouth open in surprise, her body trembling slightly from shock and fear. Yang ran towards her, wearing her gauntlets and looking pretty irritated, "We'll talk about this later, _young lady._ " she scolded, acting much more like a mother than a sister at that moment.

Weiss kept her rapier pointed at Red Vox, who slowly backed away to the wall. Blake stepped into the room, her eyes twitching slightly, " _Never_ make me run like that again." she said at Ruby, looking over to Lupus, that laid on the ground bleeding.

"So, this is the 'Insider'?" Yang asked, Ruby quickly nodded, and Blake quickly crouched beside him, Lupus had his eyes wide open like a fish, and he was babbling incoherently.

"He looks like he lost a lot of blood, we should probably heal him and interrogate him, after we get rid of that…thing." she said, looking over at the flaming canine.

Weiss took a few steps forward and looked at Red Vox with a stern look, the flames within the beast started to burn brighter, extremely bright, the ice that got stuck to the side of its face quickly evaporated, the ground started to darken from the fire, the air started to burn around it, and… then it laid down.

"What the…? What is this thing doing?" Weiss took a concerned few steps back, the rest glanced over to it, equally confused as Weiss, the flames burned as bright as a bonfire, and yet the beast suddenly calmed down.

An eerie silence filled the room, and then, after a few seconds, Lupus suddenly stood up, making Blake jump in the air in surprise and confusing the others even more. It had a dead look in its eyes that stared off into the distance, the wound on his chest burned brightly, like it was healed by fire.

Nobody knew how to react to this situation, they silently tensed up as Lupus started to suddenly run at full speed towards Red Vox! "Wait, what?!" Weiss shouted as she tried to run towards them and stop him, but it was too late.

As soon as Lupus's body went into contact with Red Vox, a blinding light filled the room, forcing the four girls to close their eyes, "W-What is happening?!" Yang asked, but the others didn't know how to reply.

The light slowly dimmed, replaced by a scorching heat and an ear-splitting howl. "Aah!" Ruby let out a light scream, covering her ears while slightly opening her eyes.

The team couldn't believe their eyes, in front of them stood a tall, tall man, about three meters tall, though he seemed smaller since he was hunched over. It was wearing a burned out school uniform, its entire body was filled with big and small tears in the skin, that burned bright with fire. His eyes burned red with monstrous rage, even his hair looked crisped and burned, and it looked like it would burn out at any moment.

There was no mistake about it: that was Lupus, that was the Infiltrator.

"ELIMINATE! ELIMINAAAAATEEEE!" the transformed Lupus screamed out with a beastly, deep voice, his humanity itself completely gone.

"N-No..." Ruby stepped back, staring in disbelief, "It can't be, those two, they...fused!" she said, no matter how one looked at it, there was no other explanation.

Blake grabbed her blade, still in its edged scabbard, "No...I-It does not make sense! It goes against anything we know!" she shouted in disbelief, gritting her teeth and gripping tightly on the blade's handle.

Yang cocked her gauntlets and went into position, next to Ruby "Well, no point thinking about it now, since it's very much real!" she pointed out to Blake. Weiss quickly stepped back next to her teammates, placing a foot forward as she readied her sword.

Ruby took a deep breath, regaining her lost composure, and twirled her scythe slightly before pointing it at the despairing Lupus, despite the situation being quite horrifying, she couldn't help herself, and she smirked at the scene of Team RWBY going together all at once.

Lupus breathed out smoke from his nostrils, his pale face erupting small gushes of liquid flame, "RAAAAAAAUGH!" he screamed, went on all fours, and leaped towards the four.

"New strategy: 'Divide and Extinguish'!" Ruby shouted like a true, albeit child-like, leader. The other three nodded unanimously, and they all jumped out of the way, except for Ruby, who held her scythe up!

Lupus didn't change trajectory, holding his claw-like nails towards Ruby as the edge of her scythe scratched against his torso, making a sound much like a knife scratching rocks. He instinctively closed his eyes as a chunk of his rocky skin got cut, Ruby pressed the scythe's end against his chest and pulled the trigger, the bullet crushing his natural armor and making him fly back.

Yang and Blake jumped at the same time in near perfect co-ordination towards Lupus, Blake quickly got her sword out of the sharp scabbard, and slashed away at the body of the monstrous man. Yang then punched his back, her gauntlet going off at the same time, the resulting impact making part of his back shatter from sheer force.

Lupus didn't even have time to whine as the hit brought him very close to the ceiling of the tall room. Lastly, Weiss quickly approached him, large symbols appearing and disappearing under her, forming as platform as she pushed her rapier forward!

Lupus gurgled as the rapier stabbed trough his back in mid-air, and to add salt to the injury, blue ice crystal started forming around the wound, covering the fire around it "N-NAAAAGH!"

Weiss smirked as she pulled out, elegantly falling to the ground and giving her back to Lupus, who fell on the floor with a loud crash, sending out small chunks of debris from the impact.

Ruby took a breath of relief, it was done, now they could have got out of ther-

Ruby was the first to notice the transformed Lupus standing up, panting and grunting from pain, his fire burned even stronger as his face contorted in consuming rage. "Look out!" Ruby shouted out at Weiss.

Weiss turned her head, she didn't have time to react as she saw the flaming fist colliding with her stomach, her eyes widened face twisted in a mix of surprise her pain. He pushed his fist forward, and she was crushed against the ground, her Aura weakening.

The rest of the team looked at the scene in horror, "Weiss!" Ruby called out, she jumped forward with a determined look, her movements turned in a blur as she darted towards her teammate.

Lupus raised a claw-like foot over the stunned Weiss, Ruby concentrated on her power, trying to go even faster in desperation. Weiss couldn't do much other than cross her arms over her face and close her eyes, and before she knew it she felt something bump against her side, moving her out of the way.

She slowly opened her eyes, just in time to see Ruby get stepped on by Lupus.

"Guh..." Ruby felt her back almost breaking despite her Aura partially protecting her, and then felt an even sharper pain as the beast-man kicked her sides, making her fly towards the wall, her body smacking against some of the chains.

"Y-You bastard!" Yang's eyes turned red and her hair turned into a brighter shade of gold, she gritted her teeth as she prepared to attack.

"How is he even still standing?! We went all out with that attack!" Blake said, running towards him with both the sword and the edged scabbard in her hands. The answer to her question was obvious after a second of thought, they underestimated him.

Yang took a heavy breath out and ran towards the monster, turning her head towards Weiss, who was standing up, "Go help Ruby!" she said, cocking her gauntlets.

"Oh trust me, I'm not going against that thing willingly!" Weiss snarkily replied, tapping her heels as she ran over to the wounded Ruby.

At the same time, Lupus swung heavily towards the approaching Blake, the cat-girl continued to run forward, head-first into the fist. Or so it seemed to Lupus, Blake sprinted forward and picked up more speed, activating her semblance and leaving an after-image made of pure rock, like a statue.

Lupus's fist smashed the after-image like it was nothing. Blake sprinted ahead thanks to the distraction, creating several after-images to keep him distracted as Yang rushed through.

Yang stopped in front of him and punched the air, an explosive bullet was shot out of her gauntlets, hitting him right in the rocky torso and making him stagger back, Yang continued to shoot him with her shot-gauntlets, forcing him back and stunning him.

Blake ran behind him as Yang hit him with the last shot, she jumped up in the air and brought her blade and scabbard down at the back of his flaming head. Blake sliced several time, chunks of burned rocks flying out at every hit.

Lupus went back to his senses in a short amount of time, and suddenly, large flames were shot out of his back, like tiny spears of fire that covered his body.

"Ah!" Blake let out a surprised shout as the spears hit her on the chest, legs, and even the head, they didn't cut or pierce, but instead let out a heavy burn on her Aura. Blake was forced to jump back,

"Damn it, it just won't give up!"

Yang wasn't particularly fast compared to her teammates, especially in restricted spaces where she couldn't use the recoil of her gauntlets freely, she unloaded them and started running around Lupus, empty shells clacking against the stone ground, she quickly replaced them and lunged straight towards him.

Despite his inhuman size, Lupus was incredibly fast, he folded his arm and pushed his elbow towards Yang, hitting her square in the face. It wasn't an attack a beast would do, which meant that Lupus still retained some sort of self consciousness.

Yang was smashed on the ground, creating yet another hole inside the room, but she quickly got back up, her eyes redder and her hair almost burning, her entire body giving off an aura of power. A smirk grew on her face, as she stretched her neck around, cracking her knuckles, "Hoho, you shouldn't have done that..."

Lupus roars and runs towards Yang, raising a fist to try to punch her again, Yang stood still, full of confidence. "DIE!" Lupus fist collided against the ground, missing Yang just slightly as she dodged sideways.

Her arms looked like they were enveloped in golden flames,she pulled back both arms, and without even thinking, let out a familiar battle cry: "OORA!"

The fists collided with Lupus's arms, there was a loud 'crack' that filled the room,the armor on the arm shattered in many small pieces, Lupus's rage-filled eyes went wide in pain as the arm hanged limpidly beside him, utterly broken.

Meanwhile, Ruby came back to her senses, a bit bruised, but it was nothing serious, "I...Got an idea." she said, hanging onto Weiss for support.

"You got another idea NOW? You should just leave it to us." Weiss stated, Ruby quickly shook her head.

"W-What kind of leader would I be if I did nothing?" Ruby let go of Weiss, grunting from pain as she activated her Semblance and ran towards the walls of the room, Weiss unable to stop her.

"You little!" Weiss shouted and reached out her arm to grab her, and then sighed in desperation.

The built-up power of Yang's semblance died down after the hit, her eyes and hair turning back to normal. Lupus started to savagely flail around with no clear target in mind, leaving the Team unable to attack him.

Blake and Yang started pelting bullets at him, but they seemingly had no effect, and they themselves couldn't see what Ruby was doing:

Ruby darted around the room grabbing as many of the rusty chains hanging from the wall as possible, she concentrated and sped up even further, letting her Aura go to the extreme as she darted towards Lupus.

She ducked under his legs and jumped over his back without him even noticing, she wrapped the rusty iron chains around his torso, wrapping his not broken arm to his hip, she then used a smaller set of chains to wrap them over his legs, she was going extremely quickly, and due to this and the intense heat, she was sweating bullets.

But, to her relief, it worked.

The beast-man fell to the ground, confused and left to writhing. Ruby took a deep breath as she jumped in the air, Crescent Rose ready, and descended on him, slamming that flat of her scythe on the back of her head, "And don't stand back up!" she yelled.

_Thunk.._ Lupus stopped moving.

Ruby breathed in and out, and fell on her knees, dropping her scythe to the ground, "That was...exhausting."

Yang wanted to run towards her sister and give her a hug, but before she could even take a step forward, the unexpected happened:

Lupus dissapeared in dark smoke, just like a grimm does when it dies.

"He's…" Blake looked shocked

"Dead..." Weiss completed

Ruby was paralysed, "No...What did I do…?" she looked at her hands, she felt like she was going to cry, she just killed another human being.

She felt Yang's hand touching her shoulder, "There was nothing else you could do, sis. I don't know why or how, but he completely lost it, it was us or him." she said, trying to reassure her.

"I...I..." Ruby collapsed onto the ground, passing out from a combination of lack of energy and shock.

* * *

"Interesting, very interesting." The master rolled a lollipop in his mouth, looking at the screen, showing the live recording of Lupus disappearing and Ruby collapsing.

"What a shame." the huge Hunter stated, standing beside his master, "He was a brilliant mind, and his Guardian was promising as well."

The master took the lollipop out, "Yes, but it seems the infiltration made him into a nervous wreck, and them discovering him was the last straw for him to break down."  
"Still," he started, putting the lollipop back in and relaxing onto the chair, "this was a valuable sacrifice, since we have discovered that this 'fusion' can happen."

"As far as I get it, his despair made him combine with his Grimm Guardian, gaining great power, but losing his humanity in the process." The hunter said, a smile on his face "Heh, it's almost poetic."

Fiore, who was sitting on the ground next to the master, spoke up, "What're we going to do about them? They're going to get the book."

The master laughed and bit down on the lollipop, _crack.._ "Let them have it, those girls earned it." he calmly stated.

Fiore nodded, "Yes, master."

"Now we just wait, according to Anguis another one of those Stand users should come to Beacon a few days, so making another Infiltrator in Vale would be dangerous. Let's just keep gathering Sacrifices so that he will join our side."

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I'm sorry if the adding non-canonical information in this fic is angering, but I can't exactly do much unless I add original characters and original concepts.  
> 2\. Don't worry, The Door, Dio, Salem, and all the other villains will show up later, however this is still the Silver Records Arc.


	33. Piercing Arrow

"This place is terrible..." Blake murmured in disgust, her eyes trailing to the bloody walls on the room, various small cells also lined the room, furnished with only chains that were in all probability used to restrain the arms and legs, along with the neck. Yang was holding Ruby on her back and was following Blake, Weiss on the back.

"Hey, let's get outta here, after what happened I don't think I want to come back here ever again." Yang stated, her breath still heavy from exhaustion. Blake looked at the walls, her cat ears slightly twitching under her bow. "What if Ruby was right? What if the book really is here?"

"Who cares about it now?! We killed someone! And this must have been incredibly traumatizing for Ruby!" Weiss shouted in a fit of rage.

"You're saying that as if that didn't affect you too." Blake replied without looking at her, crouching down and looking between the bars of the cells.

She raised a finger to defiantly reply, but a sad look appeared on her face, and she backed down, "Anyway, there's nothing here, that's for sure." Weiss stated.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." she said, and pulled one of the rusty cell doors, and surprisingly, it creaked open, she entered inside and noticed a pile of trash in the corner, which seemed like it was added there very recently. She took a deep breath and kicked the pile with her boot, sending out a ton of dust in the air.

She covered her mouth and coughed three times, before shaking her head and going back to her senses. She could half see the cover of a book under the remaining garbage, and quickly she digged it out of there.

She turned around and showed the book off to the teammates, sure, it was full of dust, but it was definitely the book Jaune managed to recover.

"So, we, uh, won?" Yang asked, looking over to her half-sister on her shoulder.

"I don't think any of us is in the mood to celebrate, and..." she took a deep breath, "I hate to say it, but we must keep this a secret from Professor Ozpin as much as possible, I don't know how he'd react to a situation like this, he is a nice man but he is…unpredictable, he might get us expelled or even arrested if he finds out about any of this. Let's keep this to ourselves, Team JNPR and the Stand Users. Is that fine?"

Yang and Weiss nodded in agreement, "Then let's go." Blake stated, and started rushing towards the exit.

* * *

"Damn it, we spent most of the money we got on getting this hotel, and it's just for one night." Polnareff complained, arms resting behind his head as he was laying on the bed, "That farmer guy really didn't wanna pay us much."

"Be happy we got paid at all, still, I sent Jotaro to get some food, he should be back soon. We should be able to taste some unique food unknown to our world." Kakyoin said, with a smile on his face, he already told them about the rogue Ruby, but some time had already passed, and they decided they would try and contact them the next day.

"Yeah, I guess, let's just hope Jotaro didn't get into some trouble, I know he's smart 'n all, but he's still a teenager, and teenagers are bound to get into trouble."

"Look who's talking, you're the most adult person here and yet you're the one that attracts a lot of trouble, I'm sure Jotaro is just fine."

Meanwhile:

"Can I catch a fucking break?" Jotaro grumbled as he looked around, what he assumed was a fast-food joint suddenly shuts off the lights, and the shutters of the doors closed up without warning. And suddenly, a mechanical feminine voice started to ring around him: _ **"Target Spotted: Initiating**_ _ **Guardian**_ _ **Program N.2333"**_

"Guardian? Are you ki-" he almost bit his tongue as he was interrupted, the whole place started shaking.. ,And then the walls of the fast food shop fell down like they were made of paper.

"I-Is this… The work of a Stand?!" his usually calm and collected behaviour broke down, he was surrounded by pine trees in a deep dark forest, the whole scenario felt...unreal, and his body felt very light, but when he attempted moving, he was very slow, like he was trying to swim through honey.

"G-Gah, what the hell is happening?" he placed a hand on his head, it hurt a lot, like a hammer was smashing through it.

Then, right before his eyes, four strange circular objects appeared in front of him, floating.

They came in pairs, two laid on top of each other, they very much resembled very large disks, made of a strange white and glowing material.

The record-like objects started to spin, the upper parts rotating the opposite way of the ones below. This all felt incredibly surreal even to Jotaro, it didn't even feel like a dream, more like a… distortion of some kind.

The objects flew towards Jotaro and suddenly slammed against his arms, starting to cut through them, "D-Damn it, I can't move!"

It hurt, a lot, and his blood started to coat the silver disks, creating red lines along their surface, like they had invisible veins from which flowed Jotaro's blood, and then started to crawl up his arms until each pair arrived at his hands. As the disks continued to suck up his blood, he felt his eyelids grow heavier and an exhaustion filling his entire body, as much as he wanted, he couldn't even summon Star Platinum.

Jotaro opened his eyes.

He was laying on the ground in a fetal position, he was surrounded by concerned people as even the fast food shop clerks were looking a bit panicked. "Omigosh, did he faint? Someone call a doctor!" a larger-than-average middle-aged woman fanned herself as she panicked.

"He opened his eyes!" a lean man made the other costumers notice, which stopped one of the costumers inputting a number on their Scroll.

He supported himself up, and placed a hand on the side of his aching head, "What are you all looking at?" He looked at the small crowd with a frown

Silence filled the place, before the crowd started to slowly disperse, everyone either going back to their tables or back to the counter.

Jotaro unconsciously looked at his hands, there was a small cut on his right hand, but it wasn't deep or particularly painful, so much so he wouldn't even have noticed it if it was covered.

Jotaro's head felt foggy, he could barely remember the 'distortion' that happened when he was down, "I'm either going insane, or more likely something weird is going on..." he muttered to himself.

* * *

Later that night:

"Hnngh..." Ruby let out a groan as she opened her eyes, the surroundings were very familiar, it was Team RWBY's dormitory, she slowly sat up on her bed and looked around, and then down, at first she thought nobody was in the dark room, until she noticed Blake laying on her front on her bed, a hand on her cheek as she looked down at a coded book.

"Uh, Blake…? Did we… Did we do it?" she weakly asked, an arm hanging off the bed, her teammates seemed to have changed in her Pjs while she was passed out.

Blake eyed Ruby, then the book, "Long story short: Yes." she simply replied, squinting and flipping the page.

"You're...not angry at me?" Ruby tilted her head, "I thought everyone would have yelled at me. Heh..."

"Why should I?" Blake replied, "You forgave me for running away, it wouldn't feel right to get angry at you for something I also did, multiple times."

"I..." Ruby gripped on her sheets and looked down, "Thanks." she simply said. A few seconds of silence passed, Blake again turned the p age. "So, about that guy, that 'Insider'...Is he really dead?" she asked with hesitation in her voice

Blake closed up the book with a sigh, "Don't beat yourself up over it, it couldn't have ended differently, it was like he...'became' a grimm, even if we captured him he'd have either broke free or he would have simply died, we did our best." she tried to sound as comforting as possible.

Ruby laid back down, she was desperately trying to convince herself of Blake's words, "These 'Silver Records'..." she suddenly muttered, giving her back to Blake.

"Hm?" Blake looked at her, curious.

"Nothing, nothing, where are Weiss and Yang?" Ruby asked, trying to change the subject.

Blake raised an eyebrow, but didn't press any further, "To find Jotaro and the others, apparently Jotaro sent Yang a message telling her they found an hotel, and to go find him once she manages to catch you."

Ruby looked back at her, "Did he really word it like that?" she asked with a slight pout.

Blake simply shrugged, "It's what Yang told me just after we returned." and then she smirked, "Maybe he was even meaner."

Meanwhile:

Boxes that once were full of fast food littered the counters and a bit of the floor, Jotaro, Kakyoin and Polnareff were, mostly, silently sleeping on the separate single beds, that is, until someone started to knock heavily on the door.

Polnareff slowly opened his eyes, "Uugh, who the hell is it at this hour?!" He stood up stood up, the silhouette of Silver Chariot appearing in the shadows, cautious as he approached the door

Jotaro sat up and quickly put on his hat, while Kakyoin seemingly kept sleeping.

Polnareff kept his back to the wall, turned to Jotaro and pressed a finger on his lips, as if to say "Stay silent.", and then he quickly unlocked the door.

The door quickly creaked open, and the head of a familiar blonde peeked in, "Hellooo, am I disturbing your sleep?" she asked, Weiss quickly waltzing in.

Silver Chariot quickly dissapeared,"Yes, yes you are." he flatly replied.

Weiss kicked away a box that was laying on the ground, "Wow, really? You three are so...lazy." she said, a bit at a loss for words.

"Well, excuse us, princess, we had quite the heavy day, I don't think any of us has the energy to clean up, y'know?" Polnareff replied, sitting back on the bed.

Weiss crossed her arms, "Not an excuse."

Yang looked around the room, before noticing the silent Jotaro, and with a smirk walked over to him, and quickly swiped his hat off his head, "Not even going to say hello, huh?"

Jotaro blinked twice, obviously dazed, "I-Uh, give it back." he said with a confused look on his face. Yang smirked, and dropped the hat back on his head, and sat on the night-stand near his bed.

"What's this ruckus?" Kakyoin muttered, his eyes still closed.

"Just some… visitors." Jotaro reassured him, sighing as he grabbed his school uniform and put it on, in order not to remain in only a tank top. It was just for a second, but Jotaro noticed what seemed to be disappointment from Yang when he put it on.

"Ah..." Kakyoin slowly opened his eyes, and gave a weak wave towards the two huntresses in training.

"So, where's Ruby…?" he asked, "None of you called to update us on the situation."

"She's fine, just...tired, she'll explain what happened another time." Weiss said

"Long story short," Yang started, "We stole back what was stolen to us, and we found the 'Insider', I don't know what the guy was actually doing, but he attacked us, and now...He's not exactly here any more."

Jotaro raised an eyebrow, but he and the others didn't inquire further, "Still, I'm rather surprised" Weiss looked around the room, "How did you afford such a place? I thought you three were broke."

"We...Improvised ourselves as monster hunters." Polnareff hesitantly confessed

Silence.

"W-wait, isn't it it illegal to do it without a proper Academy license?" Yang said, a bit surprised.

"I don't think so, but it IS illegal to claim you're an Huntsman or Huntress without a license to get a job." Weiss corrected, "You didn't do that, right?"

"I-I promise we were completely honest." Kakyoin tried to convince her as hard as he could.

* * *

"Hehehe, I'm not exactly skilled in bows, but it's been such a blast!" the scorpion-tailed Faunus giggled as he held onto the bow and the golden-tipped arrow, "Now, let's see..." he jumped from the small village's house onto the other, trying to find any suitable targets. Then, he stumbled upon a recognizable vehicle, an Atlas Airship, guarded by a few soldiers, apparently they were giving supplies to the citizens on the borders of Vale, and due to the high amount of disappearances they were highly on guard.

"Hehe, what did he say again? Find someone with a 'strong will'?" he muttered to himself, preparing the bow as he hid in the shadows, suddenly from the airship a man stepped out,, a bald man with a thick white moustache, wearing what seemed to be the uniform of an high-ranking officer.

"P-Please, sir!" a nervous guard followed him and called out to him, "You can't go out at night! Especially not here! It'd be dangerous!"

The officer kept walking, "Who's the one higher in rank here? You or me?" he asked with a gruff voice, "I must scout this place, no lowlifes can hope to defeat ME anyway!" the officer proclaimed rather loudly, the guard slowly backed away towards the ship.

"Hehe, I personally would not bet on that, bald-head." Tyrian grinned from ear to ear, and began to subtly follow him.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for the officer to stay all alone, inside an alley between two buildings.

He sat at the edge of the building and took aim, and pulled back the string "Hmm?" the officer looked around for the source of the noise.

But it was too late.

The arrow pierced his Aura and chest, breaking the bones and arriving right in the heart. "Alas, though his boasts and will were strong, they couldn't stop the arrow aimed at his soul." he pressed the back of his hand against his forehead in a melodramatic pose as he jumped down the building.

"G-Guuh..." The officer laid on the ground, touching his chest as blood shot out.

"Now now, where was it…?" Tyrian searched around his clothes, before something extremely small jumped on his palm, "Oh, there you are." he said with a grin. It was a flesh bud.

He pulled out the arrow, and as Tyrian expected, the wound was already starting to close up, though the man had already lost consciousness. "Excellent, our Lady will be pleased with this new addition."

He placed the bud against the officer's forehead, and the tentacles promptly started to attach themselves on it, drilling into his brain before the bud started hiding in his skin.

Tyrian licked his lips, "Lovely."

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Sorry for the sudden cut-off from the main cast Point Of View, but if I didn't stop there this chapter would have been way longer than it needed to be.


	34. Welcome To The Hotel

Josuke sat on the seat of the train with one leg over the other, taking a quick sip of the tea on the tray in front of him, "Fuck, finally." he let out a sigh of relief as he looked out the window, the sky was cloudy, but nonetheless he could fully see the strange shattered moon looming high in the sky.

"Hey, language." Qrow sat on the seat in front of him, he was quickly filling the tea cup with his own booze.

"Ah come on, you gotta make this a freebie. I've been walking for days, and only now I can finally sit down on some soft cushions, I'm not even the type to swear!" Josuke tried making excuses for his slip-up. "Plus...I've never been so far from my town for so long..."

Qrow smiled, and took a long sip of the alcohol, before putting it down on the tray again "I see, Morioh, huh? From the way you described it, it seems like a wonderful place."

Josuke looked up, a bit lost in thought, "Yeah, a town that doesn't give you any rest, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything else." his smile dropped as he continued, "Still, I don't know what happened after I got here, I hope that bastard didn't manage to escape due to my disappearance."

Ba-dump, ba-dump. The train bumped around on the tracks.

"You mean that Yoshikage fellow?" Qrow asked, crossing his arms together, Josuke's expression turned into one of anger, he put down the cup quickly.

"Yeah, we just had cornered him, and yet here I am, into some kinda fantasy land. Even after all of this it still seems a bit hard to believe, y'know?"

"Heh, if it makes you feel better, I had a hard trouble believing a power like yours existed, but yet here we are."

Josuke smiled, and looked at the digital clock on the other side of the wall, most, if not all other passengers were already sound asleep. "You also said you have family over at this 'academy', a niece I think?"

Took another drink and smiled, "Y-Yeah, she's about your age. Small, short hair, always wears a red hood..." he listed off, a bit drunkenly.

"Ooh, sounds a bit like Red Riding Hood." Josuke grinned a bit.

Qrow tilted his head, like a bird would, "Red riding what?" he looked quite confused.

Josuke blinked twice before realizing. Oh, right, different world. "It's a popular western fairy tale in my world, it talks about this little girl that goes to her grandma's house to give her a basket of treats, but a big bad wolf eats the grandma and dresses up like her in order to trick the girl..."

Qrow looked unusually attentive as Josuke kept explaining the story to him. "Long story short, Little Red gets eaten too, until a hunter kills the wolf and frees them both from the wolf's stomach."

Qrow leaned back on his seat, "Ah, so it seems fairy tales are a universal thing. Still, the Ruby I know would just tear open the wolf from the inside, she may be young, but she's...Gifted."

"Really? In my eyes everyone here seems gifted, people in this world are so...tough" Josuke pressed an elbow against the table, and rested a cheek on the palm of his hand.

Qrow laughed drunkenly as he took another sip, seems he was nearing his limit, "Ya must be tough when you have to deal with extinction every single day."

"Point taken."

A few minutes passed in silence, with only the movement of the train keeping them company, Josuke's eyes started growing heavier, and began closing on their own.

Qrow quickly snapped his fingers, and the eyes of Josuke went wide open, "Heeey, don't fall asleep on me now, we've almost arrived."

"I can't even get a quick nap?"

"Nope."

"This is some sorta torture…"

* * *

The next morning:

"Hey, Weiss, can you pull up my leg? I think it's getting better, but it still hurts to move." Kakyoin asked, Weiss's eyes snapped to him and she let out a light _huh?_

"Why me?" she asked confused, slowly approaching Kakyoin's bed.

"I think you're the one who is most adapt in these delicate matters, if I asked anyone else in this room they'll probably break my leg completely."

Weiss rolled her eyes, and let out a drawn out "Fine..." as she started helping his leg up.

Team RWBY had, first thing in the morning, visited the room of the Stand users in order to explain the full story to them from Ruby, something that even her teammates had yet to hear.

"So, you're telling me..." Blake started, rubbing her tired eyes with the back of her hand, "That Roman Torchwick managed to get inside Beacon without anyone noticing, and after you listened in on their conversation on what you think is the leader of the Silver Records, they used a drug on you and made you go to sleep without any of us noticing."

Ruby, who was sitting on the ground, nodded.

"You also mentioned they could warp in and out at will, just like..."

"Just like those 'hunters' that destroyed our hiding spot!" Polnareff quickly finished Kakyoin's phrase.

"The Insider, Lupus, also used that 'warping', though...I still don't understand what it is, it's not a semblance, since it seems like a common thing between members of Silver Records, probably on even the 'lower' members, like the ones that tried to attack Jotaro after he found out about the secret tunnel."

Everyone seemed a bit shocked as Ruby talked.

"Hm? What is it?"

"It's just...I didn't expect such a deep analysis coming from you, of all people..." Weiss admitted.

Ruby frowned "Hey! That's rude!"

Yang patted Ruby on the head, "There there, don't listen to mean ol' Weiss."

"But you seemed surprised too!"

"Ahem." Blake cleared her voice, deliberately trying to gather attention on her, "On a more important note..." she digged around the bag she brought along, and took out the book, "I managed to partially decode this."

"Wait, really?!" Ruby and the rest of Team RWBY seemed as surprised as the others.

"In just one night too, impressive..." Jotaro said, tipping the hat over his eyes as he laid back on the bed.

Blake placed a hand on her hip, "I was not alone, Ren and Pyrrha asked to help out once they knew we got it back. Though because of this I didn't manage to get any sleep..." she shook her head, trying to shake off the drowsiness. "Don't get too excited though, I have yet to find any information that would lead us to their location or purpose."

"Still..." she opened it and turned it around so the others could see it, the two pages had notes scribbled all over them, indicating a rough translation of the code:

_**Incredible, absolutely incredible, the S***** ******* f*r e*ceeds my expectations. The **** Es*enc* is working on my bod*.** _

"Ah come on, it's nearly unreadable this way!" Polnareff complained.

"That's not my fault this thing's coded so strangely. It's like certain words and letters are better encrypted than others, we didn't have time to translate it fully, just continue reading!"

_**Day ***** _

_**Finally, it is out, I f*nally managed to sum*on the ***mm Guardi*n. It is weak, I need more sa*rifices...If I just had more people that could help me other than ****e and **i**** _

_**I know how, I'll have to make them see the power and glory of the S***** *******, they will surely follow me ga*her sac*ifices.** _

"This...sounds like the diary of a madman." Kakyoin commented, "Why would this be considered so important?"

"Roman did mention on how Silver Records is like a cult, so if this is about their leader, it's probably considered as some sort of holy scripture only they and people who fully understand the code can understand." Again, Ruby analyzed.

"You're scaring me, do you have a fever? Did you hit your head too hard during the fight?" Weiss asked in a faux worried tone

"Let me be smart for once!" Ruby shouted, before sticking her tongue out at Weiss in a childish manner.

Blake suddenly closed down the book, "Aand that is all."

"Wait, really? Only half a page and that's it?" Polnareff scratched the back of his head as he asked that. The others seemed equally disappointed.

"Well, there's not really much I can do in one night, but still, we have more informations than before."

"If anything, now we have one more reason to stop them." Jotaro started, "This diary mentioned sacrifices, if my theory is correct, they're doing human sacrifices to increase their personal power."

"That's...horrible, how could they have possibly not have been caught?" Yang looked down, her back pressed against the wall and with her arms crossed.

"Probably for the same reason the White Fang hasn't been caught, they probably have cells all around doing their dirty work for them, and if one gets caught, it's not a big deal." Blake explained, "I have a past in them, I know how these kinds of organizations work. These however seem much more secretive than the White Fang, which is probably why we haven't even heard of them until recently."

"In any case, I don't mean to make you all panic, but in about fifteen minutes classes at Beacon will start." Kakyoin stated.

The eyes of the girls were filled in horror as they came to the realization, "Oh no! There's a test today!"

Yang bolted towards the front door, giving the others a quick 'See ya' before running out and into the hallway.

Blake and Weiss quickly followed her, running past the poor Ruby at high speed, "H-Hey, wait for me!" she said as she scrambled to stand up, she gave the Stand users a quick wave before running away.

"Should we get out of the hotel?" Kakyoin asked

"Nah, they'll give us room service breakfast in a while, we'll search for another job later..." Polnareff said as he dropped onto bed.

Ruby huffed as she run in the hallway, her teammates already ran past her, she certainly couldn't use her semblance there, she would create a huge mess. As that thought crossed her mind, she slammed onto someone face-first!

"O-Ow!" the boyish voice cried out, _slam_ , both of them fell on the ground. "Sorry! Sorry! I was just in a hurry and…."

"Heh, didn't think I'd run into you so soon." Ruby heard a very familiar voice, she slowly opened her eyes, and they almost glittered when she did.

The strange-haired young man in front of her fell right on his behind, and rubbed his back, next to him stood a tall man with sharp eyes and dark hair. "UNCLE QROW!" she squealed, immediately standing up and giving her uncle a tackle-hug.

The sheer force of the hug pinned the poor Qrow to the wall, and Ruby pressed her cheek against his chest, "I'm so happy to see you! What are you doing here?!"

"I-I should be the one asking that, kiddo..." Qrow quickly picked her up from her armpits and then slowly pulled her down, and while he did say that, he didn't ask further questions.

"Woah woah, what the hell is going on?!" the young man asked in total confusion.

Qrow placed a hand on top of the jittery Ruby's head, "This is Ruby, that guy's Josuke, he's…special, I've been tasked to bring him to Beacon, and that's all I'll say on the matter."

"Special?" Ruby repeated, walking over to Josuke and circling around him, examining him. Josuke seemed even more confused until Ruby stopped and brought a hand on her chin, "He does give off a certain 'vibe'."

Josuke couldn't help himself, and laughed, "I'll take that as a compliment, pleased to meetcha, Ruby." Josuke bowed his head slightly.

"Yeah yeah, finish the introduction once we arrive at Beacon, if you'd like I can even bring you there." Qrow offered, but Ruby shook her head in refusal.

"No need, I have friends that can bring me there!"

"I'm glad." Qrow said with a smile, before turning to Josuke, "Come on, Professor Ozpin is waiting for us." he then turned around and started to walk away and down the stairs.

Josuke blinked, and quickly started to follow him, he was about to say goodbye to Ruby before she grabbed his arm, "Are you..." she started, with an innocently curious look on her face "A Stand user?"

Josuke's body stopped and his expression first turned into shock, and then turned serious. "How...do you know that?" he asked, looking back at her

Ruby smiled, showing no clear intention of causing harm, "I have a few friends like that, you give off a similar vibe to them."

Josuke's expression softened, but only lightly, "Ah, I see, guess I'm not that unique in this world after all." he awkwardly laughed.

Ruby let go, "Still, you don't seem like a bad guy" she simply said, arms behind her back and a sweet smile on her face.

"I like to think of myself as the guy who likes to catch bad guys." Josuke proclaimed, he was actually quite surprised of Ruby's comment, he was always seen as a bit of a delinquent due to his look and style. _Guess in this world_ _they got a different mental image of a delinquent._

"So, like a hero! You'll feel right at home in Beacon..."

Josuke took a step back, and looked down the stair, hesitant to follow Qrow "Man, seriously? You go at some sorta combat school, right? Not to offend you, but you don't seem the type."

Ruby blinked and tilted her head, "Huh? What do you mean?"

"You are just so...you know..." Josuke scratched the back of his head, not knowing how to phrase it, "Small."

"Hmph! I'll let you know I grew a lot since last year." Ruby crossed her arms, and suddenly a voice rang out from below.

"Hey, get a move on!" Qrow's voice echoed up, "Do you want to be late this badly?"

"Oh, right! The test!" Ruby's eyes went wide, she completely forgot about it, "Sorry, gotta go, see you after class!" and then she quickly darted down the stairs, like she was running a marathon, and the very next moment she was out of sight.

Josuke smiled a bit as he took steps down the stairs, a bag slung over his shoulder, "What a weird girl."

* * *

Thirty minutes later:

Qrow leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, Professor Ozpin was sitting at his desk, with Ironwood at his side.

"Where is he right now?" Ironwood asked, Qrow looked at the wall and gave him a quick shrug.

"Here, probably, but seriously, I've done my job here, and though I'd love to meet Ruby again, I have other work to do." Qrow stated.

"And you'll do just that." Stated Ozpin, before standing up and looking at Ironwood, "So, about your deal, I'm sorry James, but I must refuse for now."

Ironwood's eyes widened, "Ozpin? But why? You know he's not safe here, remember what happened to the other three!"

Ozpin sighed, "We have no idea if he's at risk like them, we barely know anything about him except what Qrow told us, and nothing of what he told me mentioned anything about 'Dio.'"

"Who we still know next to nothing about, if I might add." Qrow commented, "Except he may be allied with her, but that's not much help."

Ironwood hesitated, looking in thought, before speaking up, "Two weeks, I give the boy two weeks to see if he's safe here, if he is not, he's coming with me to Atlas immediately."

"Why are you even so insistent on getting him? Don't tell me you want to do experiments on him and try to find the source of his power." said Qrow with quite the sarcastic tone.

Ironwood frowned at Qrow, "I think you need to lay off the alcohol, it's giving you stupid ideas. I just want to protect the boy, and Atlas is the best place for that. I just would have preferred doing that before something happens to him."

Qrow gave him a distrustful 'Hmmph." and didn't say further.

"Also, I feel you already know this, but..." Ozpin turned around, giving Ironwood his shoulders, "The Maiden's condition is worsening."

"..." James and Qrow remained in silence, looking down.

Ironwood looked up, placing both hands on the desk "The world is becoming more and more dangerous every day, we must find a successor soon, or these new threats might overwhelm us completely."

"And if the Maidens can't do it..." Ozpin looked down.

Ozpin shook his head, "No, we mustn't think of that, I, as the headmaster of Beacon, have the duty to keep the people of Vale safe, as you have this duty in Atlas, James. We must be strong, for our people."

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1: Exposition chapter! It had to happen eventually.


	35. Get Up, Get Out

"So, what you're saying to me is..." Josuke started, "I need to be taken care of by another, more experienced team, and I can't go to the actual school."

Qrow sighed, "Yes, basically. The school can't afford the risk to send someone as particular as you in the school, you'd stand out too much. So instead, you'll be going to live with another Team, who's going to take the duty to make you study about our world and stuff like that."

Josuke sat on the grass near the school gates, looking quite annoyed, "Fine, who am I going to live with?"

Qrow took out his Scroll, "Oh, we already have some volunteers for your situation, you can choose a team from this list, though I wouldn't suggest showing your Stand to the-"

"Why don't I just stay with Ruby's team?" Josuke suddenly asked, cutting Qrow off mid-sentence.

"You what?" Qrow flatly asked, not looking all that pleased with his suggestion.

Josuke shivered slightly, "That's one hell of a scary look you're giving me..."

Qrow hesitated, and then took a deep breath out, "I have a feeling I'm going to regret this, but I'm going to ask them for you, just don't be surprised if they refuse you, all right?"

"Crystal clear, sir."

* * *

Ruby stretched as she joined the wave of students walking out of the class, "Phew, test's over, I hope it went well..."

"I didn't even have time to properly prepare..." Blake rubbed her eyes as she said it.

"First you ruin my sleep, then you force me to be late for class, you're not the one that should be complaining here!" Weiss shouted, with slight dark circles under her eyes being proof of her words.

Suddenly, as they walked, Ruby's scroll ringed in her pockets, "Hmm?" she stopped and looked curious as she pulled it out, showing a new message from a familiar contact.

Ruby gasped and then smiled, and ran back towards the advancing Team, "Guuuys! Uncle Qrow wants to meet all of us! He says he's waiting outside the dorms!"she said excited, she was just waiting for the chance to introduce her team to Qrow, though she wouldn't have imagined it would have come so soon!

Yang turned around, at first confused, but then with a huge grin on her face.

"Is that the weird uncle you two keep talking about? The one that taught Ruby how to fight with a scythe out of all weapons?" Weiss asked.

"The same one." Yang said, a bit proud of the fact, "Still, why does he want to meet us? Shouldn't he be working right now?"

"I have a vague idea why." Ruby said, before starting to rush out of the school with the others at her tail.

* * *

"Okay, presentations are nice and all..." Weiss placed her hand on her forehead massaging it, "But who the hell is that?" she pointed at Josuke who was standing in the corner of their room.

"C-Can I move now?" Josuke asked, doing his best to stay still like a statue.

"You know, when I said 'Go in a corner and stay still', I thought you would have actually attempted to hide." Qrow stated, but smiled anyhow, "Well, surprise's ruined."

Ruby quickly waved at Josuke, who waved back, "You took me by surprise, next time I'm goin to get wrapped up in a present, all right?"

"Anyway, this guy here is a special student at this school, and he requested to stay with you four for a while." Qrow quickly explained, like he was on a hurry.

"Excuse me?" Weiss raised an eyebrow, her arms crossed sternly.

"Don't worry, it's not like he's going to be a permanent addition to your team, he'll just have to stay here for about...A week, how do you all feel?"

"Absolutely n-"Blake, Weiss and Yang were about to say in unison before Ruby butted in, jumping up in the air as she shouted:

"Absolutely! No way we would refuse!"

The others looked at her shocked at their leader's sudden decision, "Ruby, have you gone completely nuts?! We don't even know him."

But despite it all, Qrow raised his hands and started to walk away, "Leader's decision, I am out of here, it was great to see you and all, buut…."

Aand in a second, he walked out the door.

Josuke's poor confused eyes examined each member of the Team, "I-Ah, you know, if I'm not really desired here, I can just go." the 'delinquent' politely said.

Ruby quickly approached him, and then turned back to the Team, "Yang, Blake, Ice Queen, this is Josuke Higashikata! I've only known him for a day, but I have a feeling he's going to be incredibly useful to us."

"Wait, what? Useful?" Josuke looked down at Ruby, confused.

"Yeah, what does that even mean?" Yang asked, sitting back on one of the lower bunk beds, "What are you planning, sis?"

"Me? Nothing! I just think he'd be useful in some sort of situation!" she said with an embarrassing amount of confidence.

"Ah, so you just allowed him to stay just because? Have you two met before?"

"Just this day, actually." Josuke quickly said, walking over to the "Anyway, glad to meet you all! I imagine you're all my senpai."

"..."

Silence filled the room as he said the foreign word.

"Oh, right!" Josuke slapped himself on the forehead, "Different world, I always forget!"

"D-Different world?" Blake repeated, clearly not expecting that.

Ruby quickly gave a pat on Josuke's back, "Come on, tell us your story, I've been curious about it since I met you!"

Josuke smiled slightly and sat on a bed, placing his hands on his knees, facing the four and looking ready to explain, "Ah, it's a real long story, doubt I'll be able to finish it all in one go, but fiine..." he said, with a teasingly fake annoyed tone.

* * *

One hour before:

The Stand Users returned to the hotel, which they were allowed to remain till early evening, after they gathered information for a job.

The job hunt...didn't go as well as the other day, for obvious enough reason nobody trusted them, as they lacked a license or even a Combat School diploma, so even after hours of wandering around, they had to give up and go back.

Kakyoin pushed open the front door of the hotel, and walked inside with a slight limp, still not fully recovering from the ordeal a few days back.

"Ah! You three are back." the receptionist exclaimed, a smile on her face, "We found something in your room while you were gone."

The receptionist leaned down to pick up something from behind the reception desk, and then placed it so they could see it: it was a blank envelope, unopened.

The three walked close to inspect it, but suddenly Jotaro stepped back, teeth clenched, "I'm not touching that, not this time." he said, bad memories flooding in.

Kakyoin picked up the envelope, "Thank you." he quickly said to the receptionist, before slowly starting limping up the stairs, towards the room that was going to be vacant soon.

"Hey, wait up!" Polnareff called out, running up the stairs with Jotaro quietly following, his fists clenched so tightly his nails started to dig into the palm.

After they entered the room, the three gathered around the central bed. "Ready?" he asked the others, his hand ready to take off the seal.

Jotaro nodded, and Polnareff took a deep breath, "Okay, to my three you open it. One, two...Three!"

As soon as Polnareff said three, Kakyoin ripped the seal open and dug out the letter inside, positioning it so that all three could read the contents:

_**We know where you are, are you ready for your sacrifice?** _

_**-The Hunters Of The Silver Records** _

A shiver went up the three's spine, and Polnareff suddenly shouted: "Silver Chariot!"

Quickly, the armored Stand appeared beside him and grabbed both the envelope and the letter from Kakyoin, and quickly pierced them both with its rapier, completely destroying it.

"I'm...not gonna take any risk." Polnareff was slightly sweating from nervousness, even Silver Chariot looked worried from what little could be seen of its expression.

Kakyoin stood up, biting his upper lip and tapping his foot on the ground, "This won't do, this won't do...We need to get out of the city, it's obvious we're not going to be safe anywhere we go here."

"And where should we go?!" Polnareff shouted.

He hesitated, in thought, before speaking up, "On a distant village, but big enough for it to be difficult for us to be found easily."

Jotaro nodded, "There are a few villages connected by train here, but we shouldn't stay there, the enemy probably predicts we would go to a place like that."

"Uh, I think you two are forgetting something, we're broke." Polnareff pointed out.

Kakyoin looked down in thought, before snapping his fingers, an idea coming to mind, "Well, in that case, we'll have to ask for help."

"Ask for help? And who would help us?"

"Professor Ozpin." Kakyoin quickly replied, "He seemed more than willing to help us, I doubt lending us money to get out of town would be much trouble for him, and once that money is gone, we can do odd jobs in the villages in order to gather up some money."

"And just for how long do you plan on doing this?" Jotaro asked.

"I...Don't know, to be perfectly honest. But I think for now we'll have to leave most of the investigation of the Silver Records to Team RWBY, we'll just try staying alive."

"Plus, Dio's still here, somewhere."

"Yes, that too, but let's think of the present for now. So, who should go to Beacon and get the loan?"

"Who? What do you mean, 'who'? Are we not all going?" Polnareff asked, confused.

"The three of us would be an easy target, I imagine." Jotaro guessed, and Kakyoin nodded, "In that case, I'll go."

There was a bit of hesitation in Jotaro's voice, he had already experienced something incredibly strange the other day, though his memories of it are incredibly foggy.

"All right, just...Be sure to come back before night falls, we have no place to sleep in."

* * *

"Well, that was easier than I thought." Jotaro said, walking out of the school building and with something resembling a credit card in hand, "Well, he said this should be enough for the train and travelling expenses." he muttered to himself.

He was about to pass the school's gate, until he remembered something, of course, he forgot to tell Team RWBY they were going away!

Jotaro turned around and sighed, annoyed, but not enough for him to not do it, and quickly walked over to the dorm of the first years.

Once Jotaro approached the door of the Team's dormitory, he heard an unfamiliar voice coming from within, and pressed his ear against the door to hear it better: "So, yeah, there was this arrow, well, actually, two arrows, that circulated around Morioh and turned criminals into Stand Users."

At those words, Jotaro's eyes went wide open and he slammed the door open, making everyone in the room jump in surprise.

"A-Ah! What the heck, at least knock!" Ruby yelled at him, but Jotaro brushed it off and pointed at Josuke.

"Who the hell is that?!" He asked loudly.

Josuke, after the initial surprise died down, stared at Jotaro, a bit in disbelief, and then blinked, "Jotaro? Is that you?"

At those words, a collective "EEEEH?!" of confusion and surprise resonated inside the dorm.

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I promise I will never make a 'senpai' joke ever again.  
> Edit: I forgot Jotaro was Josuke's NEPHEW not UNCLE, herp derp. Now it's fixed


	36. A Confusing Goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Great chapter name, huh?

"Hold the hell up." Jotaro closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then stared at the equally-as-confused Josuke, "How the hell do you know my name?"

"We haven't told him!" Ruby quickly said.

"Holy hell, so you are Jotaro!" Josuke suddenly smiled, "And you look so young and...gloomy, what's up with that?"

Jotaro gritted his teeth, "Don't talk as if we know each other." he said, menacingly walking towards him, "Who the hell are you?!"

"H-Hold on, you really don't remember?! I'm Josuke, you know, your uncle!"

"What."

"What?"

"What…?"

"Whaaaat?"

"Excuse me, what?"

Jotaro and the four huntresses stared at Josuke blankly.

"You did mention family came to your town to find a serial killer, but I never thought it would have been your nephew, and I absolutely would never have guessed _he_ would have been your nephew." Blake said, astonished by the discovery.

"Hold on, why the hell are you trusting his word?! I never even heard of him."

Josuke sighed and stood up, "Well, it seems I'll have to convince you." he said, before suddenly and very swiftly pulling off his outfit!

"Woah! What the heck?!" Weiss shouted, Yang immediately darted over to Ruby and covered her eyes.

"Y-Yang! What are you doing?!" she shouted, trying to get out of her big sister's grip.

"You'll understand when you're a bit older." she stated, looking over at Josuke.

He was wearing a tank top underneath his outfit, and as he turned around, he pointed to the base of his neck, and there laid a perfectly star-shaped birthmark.

Jotaro gasped, "No...Are you really part of the Joestar bloodline?!"

"Wait a sec!" Ruby shouted, pushing Yang off her and making her drop onto a bed like a sack of potatoes, "Are you telling me that everyone in your family has that birthmark?"

Both Jotaro and Josuke nodded. "Talk about genetics." Blake smiled, arms crossed as her ears twitched slightly under her bow.

Weiss was looking down, in thought, "I still don't get it, you're sixteen." she started, pointing at Josuke, "And he's seventeen, like me, Blake and Yang. How could you possibly be his uncle?!"

Josuke sparked an idea in mind, and looked at Jotaro, "Jotaro's sixteen...So you can't be the same Jotaro I met in Morioh, you must be his younger version!"

"Oh great, what's this now, time travel?" Yang stood up, "Can we please resolve this another day? Josuke was about to tell us something important."

"I was…? Oh, yeah! The Stand Arrows! Why would that be important to you?"

"Because a lot of Stand Users suddenly began appearing in this world, and as far as we understand they only should exist in yours."

"Well, either us Stand Users coming here somehow awakened everyone's potential in this world at once, which sounds stupid." Jotaro started, "Or it's whatever this guy's talking about."

Josuke's eye twitched slightly, "I have a name, you know."

"Anyway, as I told you four before he came in, the arrow can turn a strong-willed individual into a Stand user, and if it's not strong willed it kills the person instantly."

"So, it could be possible that if someone brings. one of those arrows here, they'd be able to create as many Stand users as they wanted?" Blake asked.

Josuke quickly nodded, his hair bobbing up and down, "Yes, in theory. In fact that's exactly what happened in my town, it got swarmed with Stand using criminals that got shot by the Arrow."

"Well, there you have it, if that Arrow is here, it would explain a lot of things." Yang said, walking over to Jotaro, who was still in a rather confused state.

"You should probably tell this to the others...Speaking of which, where are they?"

Jotaro blinked, staring at her, it took a second for the question to register, "Oh, right, I know this is a bad time to tell you all, but we're planning to leave town."

"What? Really?" Ruby stood up, surprised.

"Why?" Yang simply asked.

"It's too dangerous here, we're going..." He looked around, making sure that nothing or nobody was listening, "...Somewhere." he vaguely concluded.

"Well, while you're out in the middle of 'Somewhere', you should make yourself useful and find something about this Arrow, whoever is gathering Stand users is not far from Vale. We'll do our best to find the Silver Records." Weiss said.

"Woah woah hey! Am I the only one not understanding most of this?" Josuke pushed his hands forwards, as if to sign all of them to slow down.

Yang turned to him, and placed a hand on her hip, "We have a lot to explain to you, also please put your shirt back on, don't do that in front of the kid."

"What? You mean me? I'm not a kid!" Ruby whined, like a kid, "Plus, there's nothing weird about this!" she said, looking at Josuke, like she was challenging the almost perverted vision of her half-sister.

"Wait, did you always have those muscles? I guess those clothes _are_ really tig-!"

A pillow seemingly coming from out of nowhere smacked Ruby in the face, knocking her on the ground before she could finish the phrase.

"This is going to be a headache..." Blake said tiredly, rubbing her forehead.

* * *

After the, more tiring than expected, goodbyes, Jotaro and the others were already on the train by evening.

"Really? You've found your uncle, who comes from the future...And somehow also ended up here?" Polnareff repeated in disbelief, "Are you sure you didn't fall asleep while going back, and dreamt it all?"

"I'd like to think it was true, but it was so surreal that I wouldn't rule that out at this point, it was fucking weird."

"I don't doubt that, I think it would be weird for anyone to meet someone who knows their future self."

Polnareff awkwardly laughed at the irony, "Yeah, no doubts."

"Wait, if he knows your future self, then will you somehow get out of this world?" Kakyoin pointed out.

"I...Didn't think of that, could be possible." Jotaro answered, could all his actions be pre-determined? A sudden doubt washed over him, if it was fate for him to fight Dio, has fate determined he will do the same in this world?

He shook his head, no point in thinking about that kind of stuff now.

He relaxed on the seat of the train, and started to silently wait.

Meanwhile, in the cargo wagon:

The woman in victorian-esque clothes coughed as she got out of the dusty box, "I know we're supposed to be a duo, but this is a job much more fit for you than for me." she said, tapping her cane on the ground.

The big, hooded man practically smashed out of his box, "Not my idea, blame Anguis, she's the 'master of Vale's countryside', or whatever dumb title she gave herself:"

"So, basically, we're under her orders." Fiore said, not pleased at all by the fact. "Like always, we're subordinates, despite us having seniority over them."

"Are you going to judge the Master's choices? If he says we're subordinates, we're subordinates." said the hooded hunter, a stern look on his face.

Fiore waved him off, "Yes yes, I know that, Brick."

"Keep that in mind then, speaking of which, what the hell are we supposed to do now? Do we strike right now?"

Fiore shook her head, "No, she just told us to follow them around, and freak them out a little every once in a while, like that letter we brought to the hotel, just what is she planning?"

"Whatever it is, it comes from the Master himself, so whatever it is, it's incredibly important." Brick said, sitting down on the ground, the wagon wobbling as the train moving, "Still, this is pretty damn boring, my axe needs to rend flesh."

Fiore walked over to the wagon's door and took out a strange electrical lock. She placed it on the surface of the door and it attached itself, a strange blue aura enveloping the door "Keep your blood lust in check." she calmly said, tapping her cane on the ground as she walked over to Brick.

"Grrr...Fine, there best be sacrifices to make, though."

"Oh there will be, don't worry."

* * *

The next day at Beacon:

"Argh...You four could have given me a blanket, y'know? I feel very unwelcome here!" Josuke complained, fixing his hair which became a mess due to him sleeping on the floor.

"We had nothing to spare, sorry..." Ruby looked down, geniuenly apologetic.

Yang put on her jacket, turning to her Team, "Josuke aside, has anyone noticed that it's been pretty quiet these days?"

"Huh, now that you mention it..." Blake started, "There haven't been any assassins or Stand users with a bounty on our head, even with the Insider we were the ones who searched for him."

Josuke's eyes went wide, "A-Assassins? Did you four do something to piss people like that off?"

"Apart from becoming friendly with your nephew and his friends, no." Yang said, "We're wanted from at least three criminal groups. Possibly four."

Ruby counted on her fingers, "Dio's assassins..." One, "The Door's assassins." Two, "The White Fang." Three, "And the Silver Records, none of them has made an attack in a while."

"Are you going to complain? At least we go to school in peace now." Weiss placed her hands on her hips as she said so.

"Speaking of which..." Yang started, putting on her gauntlets and making sure they were loaded, and Josuke looked curiously, "Today we have the day off, so it would be good to show Josuke around, right?"

"Oh, yeah, sounds like a good idea!" Ruby said, putting up her boot. "What do you think, Josuke?" she asked standing up.

The delinquent boy smiled, "I would be honoured!"

"Nobody objects?" Yang looked around, no objections.

"It's not like I have any better plans today, but please, let's keep our weapons this time, I don't want for it to end like the time we brought Polnareff to buying groceries."

The Team collectively groaned at the memory, greatly confusing Josuke, "I'm not going to ask."

"Well, it should be fine either way. Let's go!" the small leader stated, running to the door and waving at the others to follow her.

Later:

A nice jingle sounded throughout the supermarket, the five walking around, "Man, there's some crazy stuff in this world, even this 'Scroll' Qrow gifted me goes beyond the phones in my world!" Josuke said, taking out the Scroll.

"Uuh, Blake, why are we even here? Don't we eat at the school anyway?" Yang asked as Blake looked over at Josuke.

"It's what we decided, right? Each one of us brings him to a place in town of our choosing. And if he's going to live here, he might as well know what to buy."

Josuke curiously poked an unlabelled bag of orange powder, "What's this? Some sort of ability boosting spice?" he asked, his imagination running wild.

"What? No, that's just curry powder." Ruby said with a slight laugh, "There's no food that gives you more strength, we're not in a game."

Josuke grabbed the bag and flipped it, and there the label was, he sighed in disappointment as he placed it back on the shelf.

After that, it was Ruby's turn, who showed him around a coffee shop, and just because she was leader, showed him a nearby arcade, though they didn't go inside.

After that, it was Weiss's turn, "So, where do you plan to take us?" Josuke asked, looking at the ice princess curiously, she looked up and smiled, eyes closed,

"It will be a special surprise!"

"Ooh, I didn't think you were one for surprises, Weiss." Yang grinned.

"Oh shut it, I'm going to bring you all to a much more refined place, I bet you all never even heard of it!" she said haughtily.

"Yeah, sure, whatever Ice Hipster." Yang teased as a taxi pulled up, Ruby covered her hand, trying to hide the laugh, though the others didn't even try to hide it.

Weiss crossed her arms, pouty "Hmm, I'll let you have that one, just don't call me like that ever again!"

"Man, it's incredible, we barely know each other and yet you four are going to such lengths to help me around." Josuke smiled.

After a long ride, they arrived in an area near the outskirts of the city, and they arrived at a point where most residential buildings and stores were out of sight, it looked like a completely desolate area. After a few minutes, however, the taxi pulled up in front of a small building, a big sign on the front read "Museum Of The Great War"

"Wow, you're right, I never knew of a place like this, it looks...Old." Blake commented as she walked out of the taxi.

Weiss walked towards the front door, the others keeping up, "Yes, but it's also quite empty, not that it's a bad thing, it's perfect if you just want to relax while looking at old things."

Josuke tried to look interested, key word being 'tried', "A-Ah, yes, okay, what's this 'Great War' thing again?"

Ruby smiled, "Well, if we told you it would ruin the point of going here, now come on!" Ruby placed a hand on his back and pushed him.

With Weiss at the head, they headed inside the slightly ominous museum.

Meanwhile:

The balding old man in uniform hid inside the bushes, he placed a hand near his ear, initiating a call, "The targets have entered the museum." he said with a weak feeble voice.

"Good, you now have permission to eliminate them, do it in whatever way you please." the distorted voice on the other side of the call said.

"Understood." The war veteran closed the call, and held onto his black rifle, "Let's go, Guns 'N Roses." he whispered, petting the weapon.

[To Be Continued]-->


	37. Guns 'N Roses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a curiosity: How is the formatting of these recent chapters? Was it better more 'compact', or is it better now, a bit more spaced out?

"Wow, this place is...big." Ruby observed, looking around. The air was dusty, like a closed off space that hadn't received fresh air in a long time, the museum was completely barren, there wasn't even staff around.

Blake looked back at the door, and then turned to Weiss, "Are we sure it's even open? Even for a place this old, there must be someone nearby."

"Oh, it's usually like this, apparently the entire place got de-funded, but the owners protested by leaving the entire place here and unsecured, it's been like this for a year, apparently." Weiss quickly explained as the five walked through the hall.

On the walls hanged old dusty weapons and paintings, mannequins with old uniforms from all four kingdoms. "Huh, this reminds me..." Josuke started, looking curiously at the various objects in display, "I've never actually been to a museum, well, not one this big anyway. My town's too small for places like this."

"Really? I just can't imagine that." Weiss said as they walked through the silent and empty halls of the museum, while Josuke placed his hand on his pockets as he looked around.

About fifteen minutes passed, and Ruby groaned, "Booring...Can it be Yang's turn? Whatever she would choose would be much better than _this._ "

"Hey, as long as Josuke's interested, let him be, right?" Yang quickly replied, making Ruby frown.

"Hmph, if you don't want to stay here, maybe you should wait outside." Weiss coldly said, turning her head around with a smirk.

Ruby frowned and turned around, "See you later then." she said, crossing her arms and putting on a pouty face, starting to walk away.

"Ruubyy! You know she's not serious!" Yang said, trying to follow her, and Blake silently scolded Weiss with a glare.

Josuke couldn't help but smile at the scene, "You four are truly made to be a team.", making the girls turn around to face him.

"Well, by luck or fate, here we are." Blake said, smilin.

And suddenly…

Josuke's head snapped forward, "Did you hear that?" he asked, looking around.

_Click, clack, click, clack, click, clack._

A metallic sound, like someone walking around with iron boots, coming up from above.

"What is that?" Weiss asked, "Could it be a thief?"

Blake placed a hand on her hip, near the scabbard, "Whatever it is, keep your guard up, I have a bad feeling about this..."

The four slowly distanced themselves from each other, looking around cautiously.

And then, like rain, bullets began to rain from above.

"A-Aah!" Ruby let out a shriek, various bullet colliding with her, though not penetrating the Aura. She quickly activated her Semblance, and made a short distance run, away from the attack.

"W-What the hell is go-" Josuke turned around and started to run, but was quickly cut short by a few bullet colliding against his back, digging into the skin, he let out a pained shout, but quickly rolled away, the pain was smaller than he thought it would be.

Yang quickly grabbed Blake and Weiss, throwing them forward before running away herself.

The five quickly walked through an open door, ending up in a room full of old paintings, Yang quickly shut the door, the sounds of bullets getting closer.

"Well...Great, this is just great." Josuke panted, sitting on the ground near the wall, "What the hell is going on?!"

Ruby took deep breaths, "T-They're trying to kill us, it's obvious." she said, taking out Crescent Rose in its rifle form, loading it up.

"Where did those bullets come from?!" Weiss shouted, "There's no place or second floor where they could possibly shoot us from!"

"I couldn't see, but it definitely came from above." Yang said, approaching Josuke, "Are you hurt?"

"Oh no, I just got shot in a few places, nothing big." he said with a sarcastic tone.

Yang peeked on his back, where various bullet wounds showed themselves, but there was something odd about them, "These bullets...They feel too skin-deep, shots like that would have left much bigger wounds." she analyzed. Ruby crawled close and checked too, nodding to Yang in agreement.

"So...Agh...What does it mean for me?" Josuke asked, slowly standing up.

"You'll be fine, if you're anything like your nephew it'll take a lot more to take you down."

Josuke laughed, well, he did survive a _lot_ of crazy stuff.

Blake pressed her ears against the door, "I don't hear shots, I think they stopped." she stated to the team, before facing Ruby, "What are your orders?" she asked the leader, complete trust in her eyes.

"Let's get out of here, we shouldn't stay here for too long, but we also shouldn't all be together. Let's split up." she stated, and then pointed at herself, Weiss, and Josuke, "We will form Group A, Yang and Blake shall form Group B, is that all right?"

The other four nodded in agreement.

"Perfect, now, let's try to be on opposite points as much as possible." she stated, and crawled to the door, the others following her. She placed her hands on the door and took a deep breath.

"Three...Two...One!"

As soon as the door opened, Group A went to the right, towards the exit, while Group B went towards the left, crawling and covering themselves with the exhibits placed on the way.

After a few seconds of silence, shots were heard from above, and a myriad of bullet started to rain down Group A.

The three quickly hid behind a case of several old-fashioned weapons covered by glass.

Josuke quickly looked up towards the ceiling, and there it was.

A black mechanical-like being was walking on the roof, defying gravity as it casually aimed with its black rifle, on its face a red visor that moved with its face.

"W-What?! It can't be, it's a…!" Josuke shouted, gathering the attention of the other two, and unfortunately also gathering the attention of the enemy, who quickly rushed over on top of them and started to make bullets rain.

"D-Damn it. CRAZY DIAMOND!" Josuke shouted, his Stand appearing in front of him, and started to deflect the bullets with its fists.

"It's a Stand!" Ruby shouted, "But what's the ability?!"

"Less talking more attacking, _please._ " Weiss grabbed hold of her rapier, and pushed her arm forward, creating a floating, platform-like white symbol.

Understanding what she wanted, Ruby nodded, and turned her weapon into Scythe form.

"Wait, are weird weapons like these the norm here?!" Josuke shouted as if just now realizing it, his Stand still tiredly but desperately deflecting the bullets.

Paying Josuke's question no mind, she quickly hopped onto the platform, which glowed as her boots pressed it.

The unknown Stand focused first on Josuke, and then quickly turned around, pointing the gun down at Ruby and pressing a finger on the trigger.

But before it could shoot, Ruby jumped upwards, the platform giving her an incredible boost in speed, allowing her to reach the ceiling in no time. Ruby grabbed Crescent Rose with both hands and swung sideways, directed at the stomach of the Stand.

The Stand jerked back as the scythe sliced open its stomach, blood dripping down to the ground. _Gotcha!_ Ruby thought, thinking she already won. Josuke's face relaxed as the rain of bullets stopped.

Suddenly, the Stand's visor glowed a bright, ominous red, and Josuke fell to the ground, writhing in pain. "W-What t-" just as she was about to say it, she felt her Aura weakening, and she slammed on the ground hard, also in pain.

Weiss looked at the two confused, and panicked, "W-What is happening?!" she shouted, looking up at the Stand, and..."No…."

The deep wound caused by Ruby was being healed incredibly quickly, closing up as the armored, soldier-like Stand stood still, holding the rifle in both hands.

"I-I can't believe it...Ugh...The bullets...are draining our energy!" Josuke shouted, trying to get on his knees, "Even Ruby...Her Aura didn't deflect those Stand's bullets, they got stuck in it, and are slowly draining it!"

Weiss quickly moved, spinning the chamber of her rapier, and blue marks ran across its length. Quickly, blue missiles of pure ice Dust were shot out, aimed towards the Stand.

It didn't even make an attempt to move out of the way, it took the shots head-on, creating a ball of cold vapor cover the Stand, and as it started to dissipate, the Stand just stood there, upside-down and completely unharmed.

"What?!" Weiss shouted bewildered. Suddenly, bullets started to hit the Stand from behind, along with a few explosive shots, it was Group B giving their support from the other side of the room, Yang's explosive shells making the surroundings tremble.

And yet, all of the attacks did not even scratch the Stand.

Weiss stepped back, pointing down the weapon "Either that thing's immune to Dust-based attacks, or..."

"I-it's immune to _all attacks_ while he's doing that..." Josuke stated, slowly standing up, Crazy Diamond looking incredibly weakened.

"D-Damn it!" Josuke shouted as he weakly ran over to Ruby, Crazy Diamond quickly placed a hand on Ruby's hunched back, and his ability began to take effect.

The small bullets 'stuck' on the aura, floating in midair, quickly went back and fell to the ground, and Ruby's Aura was quickly restored.

Ruby felt her energies returning, "This is your ability? It's amazing!"

"C-Can't use it on myself...unfortunately." Josuke said, his lifeforce still being absorbed by the Stand.

A sudden crash was heard from behind Group A, and after a big blast, Yang could be seen soaring through the air, yelling furiously, "AAAAAH!".

_Slam!_

Yang's Gauntlet slammed against the upside-down face of the Stand, cracking the visor and making the strange , and sending it fly back, but the Stand seemed follow its own rules of gravity, falling with his back on the roof.

"Now!" Yang shouted at Ruby as she began to descend. Ruby quickly pointed the scythe up, looking through the scope as her finger hovered towards the trigger.

Two shots, one on the abdomen, and one right on the heart.

And then, silence…

Josuke fell to his knees, "H-He's done for, that has to have offed him." he said, he was not happy with having killed another human, but it had to be done.

However, just as Yang fell back on the ground, the Stand's body dissapeared into smoke, leaving the rifle and visor behind.

Just a second later, they started to dart through the room like they were being attracted by something, their speed almost blinding as they clung to the walls of the museum, going out of sight.

"What the…!" Yang exclaimed, confused.

"Wait...No…Could that have been an Automatic Stand?!" Josuke exclaimed, if that was the case, the user did not die, and the Stand's equipment was being attracted towards the assassin!

[To Be Continued]-->


	38. Guns 'N Roses Part 2

"Automatic Stand?! What does that even mean?!" Weiss shouted, still looking bewildered.

"An automatic Stand acts without the User's intervention, and destroying it is completely pointless!" he shouted back, he had the unfortunate experience of having to deal with several automatic Stands, and he was sure that was one. At least the draining bullets were gone from his body now that it was defeated.

Ruby reloaded her weapon, then jumped on top of one of the long weapon cases and looked around, "I don't see anything, did anyone see where that gun and those weird goggles went?"

Yang quickly ran over to the three, breathing heavily, "No, those things were way too fast for me, but did anyone see Blake?"

The three looked behind Yang, and surprisingly, Blake was nowhere to be seen. "Oh, oh no!" Ruby exclaimed, coming to a dark realization.

And then, a flurry of shots were heard from another room, the group turned around, a tag above the door read "Vehicle Room."

The group didn't lose time, and quickly rushed over towards the door. "BLAAKE!" Yang shouted as her shoulder collided against the door, slamming it open.

The room was filled with various replications of ancient war machines put on display, all of them were surprisingly detailed and on-scale, but unfortunately the room was quite big, this meant that it would have been easy to hide around, or possibly even inside the machines.

The room was filled with silence, and a dark thought crossed the group's minds, were they already too late? Was Blake's life that easily stolen?

Ruby shook her head, trying to clear her head of that thought, "Let's look around!" she shouted, holding Crescent Rose backhanded. The others nodded, and split up to examine the various parts of the exhibition.

Five full minutes of emptiness passed, a deep desperation grew inside Ruby, Weiss, Yang and even Josuke. He scratched his head, making his pompadour wobble around slightly, as he placed a hand on top of an incredibly realistic tank-like vehicle "Where could-" he couldn't even finish before he heard the sounds of gunshot,

He turned around and then looked at the others that were scattered around the room, they seemed to have heard it too!"

"The shot came from inside….here!" He shouted, slamming his fist on the tank's hull, before starting to quickly climb it.

"What the- No! Stop! That's way too dangerous!" Ruby shouted, trying to stop Josuke's recklessness, but it was already too late.

A rusted hatch on top of the ancient tank opened up, and right in front of him…

An old man in a military uniform with a severely receding hairline and a red visor on his eyes pointed the black gun at Josuke.

"What?!" Josuke shouted as the Stand user began to shoot at him. Josuke instinctively summoned his Stand in front of him to absorb the blow, forgetting for a moment that the gun was a Stand itself.

The bullets phased through Crazy Diamond's torso, to Josuke extreme surprise, before they hit him square in the chest.

Josuke's fell from the tank and laid on the ground, "Aargh...These may not hurt like regular bullets, but they sting like a bitch!" he shouted.

The old Stand user grinned as the three girls rushed over to their friend, "I told you!" Ruby shouted with a hint of frustration.

"W-Wait, sto-!" Before Josuke could tell them to stop, the Stand user looked through the scope of the rifle, and with much more speed and accuracy than his body would imply, began sending out a hail of bullets towards the three.

"Argh!" Yang shouted as her thigh was grazed by a bullet, despite all of them being quite dexterous the flood of bullets hit all of them, though no bullet got stuck in their body.

Yang scooped Josuke up by the underside of his arms and began pulling him away, behind another large armored vehicle.

The four hid together while Josuke writhed in pain, "Damn it…!" he shouted, as bullets began to hit against the hull.

"I-I don't get it, replicas like those aren't supposed to even have an inside!" Weiss shouted in disbelief.

"I don't think that was a replica, that was a real deal, that's why it's all so rusty!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Wow, what an old piece of junk." Yang said, catching her breath, "So, what now?"

Josuke stopped his writhing, the pain becoming slightly more bearable as he got used to it, "A-Ah, I have good reasons to think your teammate is there with that scumbag."

"Are you sure about that?" Ruby asked, followed by Josuke shaking his head.

"I'm not sure, but it's the only place I can think of, if he still can drain, I think he's using her as a way to heal himself if we hurt him."

Yang gritted her teeth, "He really is a scumbag then! What do we do? Smash the tank up?" Yang looked over at the leader, looking ready.

Ruby rocked her head back and forth, thinking, "No, no! We can't do that!" she suddenly said, surprising the others.

"But...why?" Weiss asked, the sounds of shots slowly dying out behind them.

"That tank...I think I recognize! I think it's some sort of prototype that was used near the end of the war, it had a big fault in that if the insides were hurt too much, the whole thing would just combust from the inside!"

"How the.." Weiss hesitated to ask, "How do you even know that?"

"I know my weapons and vehicles, even old ones!"

"But we're basing this on an assumption, we can't be sure that Blake is there or that it would even do that!"

"It's a pain to admit, but we can't risk it, Blake's life is on the line." Yang said, back against the replica tank.

"Then we'll have to find a way to lure him out, somehow..." Josuke stated, looking down and trying to make a plan in his head, ideas popped up here and there, but nothing of actual use.

Suddenly, Josuke yelled in pain, clutching at the wound in his chest, "No! He's draining him even though he's not wounded?!" Ruby shouted in surprise.

"That means he's also draining Blake! We have to go stop him!" Weiss shouted, picking up her rapier and running out of the cover, along with the other tree.

There the Stand user stood, one half inside the tank, and the other outside, his visor glowed red as he stood still, grinning like he had already won.

"Hook, line and sinker." he simply said as the red glow stopped, and his arms sprung into action, letting out sprays of bullets down towards the three.

The bullets caught them by surprise, and they were hit directly, bullet after bullet smacking against their Aura, "D-Damn it! You're gonna pay for this" Yang shouted as she fell to the ground, gritting her teeth.

Josuke crawled out of cover, his eyes in shock as he watched the scene, they were all so caught in such panic that they didn't realize they were being baited.

Immediately the assassin turned around and shot Josuke a few times, and he groaned in pain. "I'm going to drain all of you brats." The old man said, laughing. And them, the visor placed on his eyes began glowing with an even brighter red than before.

The four writhed around on the ground, screaming as the life was drained out of them, "Daaamn iiit! Is there nothing we can do to s-s-stop him?!" Josuke began stuttering around his words, his arms and legs began to feel numb and lose all feeling.

"You can't, Shit Hair, just get on the ground and die, all of you!" The old man screamed in a deranged voice, he had completely lost his sanity, if he ever had any.

Then, on the Vehicle Room dawned silence, Ruby, Weiss and Yang bit their lips, and Ruby in particular closed her eyes, how could they get out of this situation?

Suddenly, with his chest and back bleeding, Josuke stood up, looking at the old man with fury in his eyes, "What the hell did you just say?" he asked, and then flashed a furious grin, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY ABOUT MY HAIR?!"

And then, he bolted towards the tank, the wounds and the draining not enough to stop his infinite fury.

The assassin stood still in surprise, his mouth forming an 'O' "W-What?! How could you possibly be still movi-" his words were cut short from Crazy Diamond's fist smashing into his face, cracking open the Stand visor and making it shatter completely.

"DORARARARARARARARARARA!" The shout went up and echoed inside the room, each 'ra' being a punch with the destructive power of a cannonball straight to the stomach, Crazy Diamond juggled the Stand user in the air with its fists, beating him into a bloody pulp before headbutting him onto the ground.

"Phew, that felt goood." Josuke said as he adjusted his shirt, sneakily fixing it with his ability. The three Huntresses stood up, all of them incredibly surprised by Josuke's sudden burst of willpower, "All right, noted, never insult his hair." Yang murmured as she rushed over to the battered up Stand user, keeping him pinned down via pressing a foot on the chest.

Josuke jumped in the tank, and after a few moments of silence, he popped backed out, an incredibly injured and bloodied Blake slung over his shoulder, though the wounds already began to fix themselves.

Blake opened her eyes, "U-Uh…?" she murmured weakly, stumbling around as her feet touched the ground, she touched the side of her head, near her ribbon, and took a few deep breaths, "I feel...fine." she said, looking over at Josuke, "Thank you, I owe you one." she thanked with a smile.

"Hey, what's this?" Weiss walked over the attacker, and crouched next to him, and picked something from the ground, she raised her arm, letting everyone see it.

A crumpled piece of paper, inside were written strange symbols, and on the side were written words or numbers. Blake shook her head and took a few steps closer, leaning in to take a closer look, "Wait, I recognize those symbols, they're the same of the ones in the diary!"

Josuke looked confused, but from the expression on everyone else's face, he could tell it was a big deal. Yang slammed her foot down on the old man's chest, letting him gasp for air, "Tell us! Why do you have this?! Do you work with the Silver Records?!"

After a few desperate breaths, the old man laughed, "No...you've got it all wrong...I'm a proud ally of The Door, he was the one who told me to keep this thing, and keep it safe."

"The Door…?" Ruby stepped closer, "Just who is he?!" she said in frustration, there were too many unsolved questions, and this on top of everything was starting to get a bit much.

"Hehe...Like hell I would tell you, I prefer death than betrayal." The old veteran said, loyal to the very end.

Josuke cracked his knuckles, "Oh really now? I could just beat the shit out of you over and over then, as long as I don't kill you I can fix you back up, so we can go all day long."

The old man remained silent, thinking...After a few seconds, he started to give in, and talked, "I'm not gonna tell you his identity, but I am going to tell you this, he gave this piece of paper to a few of his most trusted assassins before sending us to kill ya. I don't know why, all I know it has something to do with those grimm cultist freaks!"

Josuke raised a fist, the faint outline of Crazy Diamond's closed hand hovering above it, "It's all I know, I'm not gonna tell anything else."

Josuke turned to look at Ruby, then Weiss, then Blake, then Yang, they all silently nodded.

"Well, g'night then!" he said, kicking him square in the face, knocking him out.

[Stand Name: Guns 'N Roses. Stand User: Old Spice

Status: RETIRED]

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter feels a bit...rushed, I have a few real life stuff that does not allow me to be completely invested in making chapters the highest quality possible, at least at the moment.


	39. Can't Catch A Break

After half a day of travelling, Jotaro, Polnareff and Kakyoin reached a village far from the city of Vale. Despite it being a village, it was still quite big, with huge walls that lined up the entire perimeter, mounted turrets and guards on top of the walls, defending the village from any possible threat.

Despite the well-defended nature of the village, they allowed the trio to wander in quite easily after a quick body search.

Polnareff looked slumped, "Urgh, I'm beat, do we have to find work right away? Can't we wait until tomorrow?"

Kakyoin shook his head, along the way he got a pair of sunglasses for cheap, the sun around these parts didn't let up, it was like an entirely different place from the more urban Vale. The village was placed rather high up the hills, and it was bathed by the sun even when it was setting.

"Weren't you the one complaining about how we were burning so quickly from our lent money?" Kakyoin asked.

"Well, _I'm_ not the one that spent precious money in order to look cool!" Polnareff replied in a rather salty tone, he was almost becoming red from the sun's rays, he wiped away the sweat off his brow, and looked at Jotaro, "Well, what do you say?"

"For once, I agree with Polnareff, let's rest, an inn should be nearby." He simply stated, marching forward towards the large building in the middle of the village.

* * *

In the span of one night, the four managed to explain the current situation in as much detail possible, catching him up on the current events.

The next day, after school, Blake took her time to analyse the piece of paper, and the symbols did in fact match with the ones in the diary, but it was not complete, not at all.

She closed the diary, and looked at the others, "I don't know for what purpose, but the others assassins that will come to kill us must have the other pieces of this: One thing is sure: I can't decipher it completely without those pieces."

"What do you suggest? We go searching for 'em?" Josuke asked, sitting on the ground with his legs crossed.

Before Blake could answer, Ruby shook her head, "It would be impossible, we don't have access to much information like our enemy, it would be much faster if we let them come to us."

"But by doing that, we're giving them the upper hand!" replied Weiss, "They could attack us at any moment, when we're alone or even in our sleep!"

Ruby let out a "Umm...", clearly not having thought about that.

Josuke spoke up again, "I'm used to stuff like this, we simply must not let our guard down and we must always stick close to each other, especially outta this school. Though we must get out of here often if we want to 'lure' them out."

"It's...reckless, but it's the only choice we have at the moment." Blake said, putting the diary on her lap.

"Hey..." Yang suddenly spoke up, leaning on the bunk beds, she looked down at her hand, confused, "When did I get this cut?"

Josuke stood up, looking at it, it was a rather deep cut, and blood was slowly flowing out. "Huh, I was sure I fixed you all up last night, could my Stand have missed a spot?"

Crazy Diamond's hand appeared in front of him, and touched her palm, the cut quickly closing up. Yang looked at her hand and moved it around, closing and opening her palm, "All better, thanks."

Ruby yawned slightly, and laid on her bed, head on the pillow...before suddenly jolting up with a small scream, "Aaah! What was that?!" she asked the others, touching the back of her head, and then at the pillow.

Strands of hair laid on the pillow, and for some reason, they were getting cut up so much they were becoming less and less visible by the millisecond.

"The pillow…" Josuke looked at her, wide-eyed, "Cut your hair?"

"W-What does that even mean?" Weiss asked, getting rather freaked out.

"Don't touch the pillows!" Blake shouted, standing up, and swiftly throwing the diary under the bed.

"Could this be the power of a Stand?" Yang asked, looking over at Josuke.

He nodded, "It's possible, even then I don't know what the hell is happening!" He replied, a purple aura rippling on his body, "But I'm ready for a fight!"

The group looked around, but there really wasn't anything out of the ordinary, even the supernaturally sharp pillows didn't look strange.

_Shiing_

Ruby turned around at the source of the sound, it seemed to come from outside the room, "What was that?"

It sounded like a blade grinding against a rock, it lasted only for a moment, but it was enough to send a shiver up the five's backs.

Josuke looked at the four and placed a finger over his lips, "Sssh."

Then, he walked over the door, and placed a hand on the knob, and slowly opened the door, peaking into the hallway.

Nothing, just the silent hallway of the First Year's dorm, the other students were probably out with their teams, doing an extra-curricular activity or having fun in town.

"There's nobody out h-" he was about to say, before a long arm twisted its way inside the half-open door, wielding a knife right in front of Josuke's eye.

The shock made him freeze for a second, before he let out a shout and quickly slammed the door, the arm quickly retracted back to where it came before the door could crush it.

Josuke backed away, breaking into a cold sweat, and turned around to look at the others, from the looks in their faces they were equally as freaked out.

_Shiiing_

"An assassin! It must be!" Blake shouted, "They're getting even bolder now, attacking us in plain day and in the dormitory!"

_SHIIING_

The sound became higher in pitch. Josuke's face twisted in rage, "Screw it, I'm gonna break that dude's bones!" he shouted, running towards the door and placing a hand on the handle to open it.

His hand began to bleed heavily as soon as he touched it, and his body instinctively pulled him back before he could lose a finger or two. "F-Fuck!" He shouted, looking at his bleeding hand, "How the-"

_SHIIING SHIING SHIING SHIIIING_

The annoying sound repeated itself multiple times, "I-Is it my imagination or did the walls...shine for a second?" Yang asked, her body getting chills as she looked around for her gauntlets.

Ruby's eyes went wide, "Don't touch the walls! I think I know what's happening...somewhat!" Ruby started, standing at the centre of the rather small dormitory room, "I think this guy's ability is to make things 'sharp'! I don't know how or with what rules, but that's the only thing that could be possible!"

"So..." Josuke's wiped away the blood from his hands, and ripped apart a piece of his clothes, wrapping it around his hand, he could have fixed it later anyhow, "This guy is trying to trap us inside this room, rather than fighting us directly."

_SHING_

* * *

The good news: It's a lot easier getting a job on the countryside of Vale.

The bad news : The jobs are absolutely damn awful.

The three had to shuffle through three different jobs through the entire day, once as helpers for the village's butcherer, once as log carriers from the nearby forest to the village in the blistering heat, and a third one as working as waiters for the same inn they were supposed to sleep in.

Kakyoin was the one who felt the most at ease with the job, he did his job of carrying drinks to the various patrons of the inn without one complaint, while the same can't be said about Jotaro and Polnareff.

Jotaro absolutely refused to put on a uniform, and grumbled under his breath every time he had to go back and forth from one table to the next because the patron suddenly changed their order or when they asked for more.

Polnareff, however, straight up refused to even work, his face was red like a tomato and he was sweating buckets, his body looking like it could collapse from the heat at any second, he just stood there in the rather tight uniform, fanning himself and looking rather uncomfortable overall.

"Usually I would yell the hell out of ya." Said the innkeeper with a rather thick accent as Polnareff leaned on the counter, "But these days 'ave been real hot, dunno why, never felt anything like this."

Polnareff looked at him, took a few deep breaths, and asked "A-And since when did it start being like this?"

"Oh, I dunno, yesterday maybe?" he said, crossing his hairy arms, "About when you three came here."

"Huh..." Polnareff tried to look uninterested, but even he realized it, there was something up with that village, there had to be a reason why it was so damn hot. "Could it be…?" he muttered to himself.

"Huh?"

"O-Oh! Nothing, nothing, I'll just leave now, you don't have to pay me!" he stated, walking towards the door and taking off his uniform as fast as he could, catching the confused gazes of Jotaro and Kakyoin.

However, Polnareff had a sudden determined look on his face

[To Be Continued]-->


	40. Cutting Edge

The walls of the dorm room menacingly shined, even just touching those could have probably cut off a hand. Josuke looked around as he backed away, the five nearly touching shoulders, "I-I don't get it, how the hell does this Stand work?!"

"What do we do?!" Ruby shouted in Josuke's direction, who looked at her with a confused expression, as if silently telling her ' _You're supposed to be the leader!"_

"No matter how you look at it, there's no way to get out of here!" Blake shouted, the walls and doors were turned sharper than an obsidian blade.

"No...Maybe there is a way!" Yang suddenly stated, looking over at Josuke, and then pointing at the ground, it took him a second, but his face brightened up when he understood. Without another second to spare Crazy Diamond appeared beside its user, and its fists began to furiously bash against the ground, tearing it apart with nearly Mach-speed punches.

"A-Ah!" Weiss shouted, "What are you doing?!"

The Stand's flood of punches made a hole on the ground big enough for a person to fall into, and under it showed the hallway of the floor below. "I'll fix it later, now let's go!"

Without a single hint of hesitation, Josuke jumped down the hole, grunting as he impacted against the ground of the floor below, but withstood it.

After a few seconds, Team RWBY jumped down, much more easily and with much more grace. "Where are we going?" Blake asked, looking expectantly at the young Stand user.

Crazy Diamond, in a second, reached up to the roof of the wall and with a simple touch fixed it up, like nothing ever happened. "For now, we try to get the hell out of here, hopefully we'll catch the assassin in the way!"

Then, Josuke started to make a run for it, his Stand floating around him, fists ready. The other four started to run after him, the clattering of the footsteps filling the hallway.

Ruby looked over at Crazy Diamond, and muttered something: "..'S cute..."

"Huh?" He looked over at her, who was now looking down at the ground.

"Your Stand, it's cute!" She said, suddenly looking up as she kept running, somehow managing to look both ashamed and unashamed at the same time.

"That thing? Cute?" Weiss looked over at her leader and then at the Stand, confused, "How?"

"It's big, pink...and it can fix stuff!"

"It's the  _opposite_ of cute!"

"B-But..."

"Your meaning of 'cute' is really twiste-"

"Is this really the time to talk about this kind of stuff?!" Blake interrupted, starting to lose her patience.

After that rather ridiculous exchange, the group arrived at a pair of stairs, one led up, and one led down.

"Let's split up, that should confuse the ene-" Ruby was about to state, until Blake coughed and interrupted her.

"The last time we split up, I was taken hostage in plain sight, not risking that again."

The red leader gave out a little "Urgh, fine..." as the others silently agreed to an unspoken idea, they had to go up and face the assassin directly.

Just as they were about to go up, a sudden creepy, bone-chilling laugh was heard from below the stairs, the words seemed to belong to a female, but the next second the tone seemed to change, turning more masculine in nature.

"Don't slow down, we must charge at full force!" Yang encouraged the others, who stopped for a second at the sudden sound.

* * *

"What...What the HELL?!" Josuke let out a shout of both bewilderment and fear at the sight in front of him.

"What is that?!" Ruby asked, backing away.

In front of them, in the hallway, there was an androgynous figure that slowly made its way towards them, its skin gray as stone, and with lines of black makeup lining its face, along with a black costume that reminded one of a fusion between a mime and a clown, wielding a knife. The person laughed creepily, one time in a female tone, one time male, rhythmically.

The four girls raised their weapons, Ruby and Josuke standing in front of the others, "Don't attack yet! We don't know if it has a trick up its sleeve!"

The person walked slowly and slightly hunched, like a zombie in an old movie. "Hehehe..Hahaha...D-D-Do y-you really think y-you can h-hurt me?"

Josuke took a step forward, Crazy Diamond's expression turning into an angry look, "Oh, yeah? And what do you think you're going to do with that thing, huh?" he said, looking over at the knife.

"O-O-Oh...this? T-This is f-for demonstration..." The assassin said and then…

_Shiing_

Their hand shined, and with a swift movement, dropped the knife, before hitting it with an open palm. In less than a second the Stand user hit the knife about five times, each time with a sound of metal smashing against metal.

Then, the knife broke in five different pieces, and they clanged onto the ground.

The weird assassin let out a broken laugh,, and apparently, it must have really gotten on Yang's nerves, as she stepped forward with an angry look, "As if that means anything!" she shouted, and before the others could say anything else, she launched herself forward and tried to place a fist right on the assassin's face.

They raised their hand towards their face, and as soon as Yang's gauntlet smashed against it...it began breaking into little bits, and from the looks of it, and if she didn't pull away her arm. It would have cut her whole hand in half.

She fell on the ground as the assassin gave out a distorted laugh, running away and vanishing from sight in the long hallways of the mostly silent dorm.

"Yang!" Her half-sister shouted, the group running over at her sight, "Argh, why do you never learn? You made me have a heart attack!"

She slowly crouched, putting a hand on her knees as she looked at her gauntlet, in pieces, breathing heavily, she smacked her fist into the grond in anger, her eyes turning red.

"W-Whoa, what's happening?"

"It's her semblance, whenever she gets hit or becomes angry, she becomes stronger… and more reckless." Weiss quickly explained, Blake and Ruby helping her up.

Ruby looked over, a serious look on her young face, "Your Stand's ability will be incredibly useful to us in this case, and considering the enemy's ability...It'd be best if you sticked with us."

Josuke nodded, and silently fixed Yang's gauntlet, and she quickly stood up, cracking her knuckles, "Sorry about that, but these damn weirdos are getting on my nerves."

"I mean, you do have to be kind of out there if you want to be an assassin." Blake stated.

"I've met worse." Josuke said casually, he wasn't kidding, what he saw in Morioh truly was an entirely new form of 'Bizzare' that he wasn't sure anything else could compare to it, though this entire world came pretty close.

Weiss stepped forward "Where did it go?"

They all shook their head, "Let's just go, each second that passes could be a new trap laid out for us." Blake calmly stated

* * *

Five minutes of wandering through the floor passed, and they checked every corner of the dormitory's hallway, which all of the sudden seemed like a twisting labyrinth to the group, they even risked splitting up and searching the immediate upper and downer floors just to be sure, but their searched turned out empty handed, and they re-grouped.

"Any signs of it being around?" A tired Ruby asked, catching her breath.

She looked at each of her companions, but none of them had anything to report.

"I also checked the rooms," Josuke started, "But there were no signs someone broke in, and all of them seemed locked."

"Then..Where it could be hi-" Before Ruby finished the question, a low sound was heard.

"What was that?" Weiss asked.

Ruby looked around, before wandering to a wall, leaning her ear on it.

And then a broken voice called out, seemingly from  _inside_ the wall:

"I-I-InSaNE clOwN PosSE!"

After that, a black-and-white hand appeared from the wall, and grabbed Ruby by the hair.

A blink of an eye later, and she was gone

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the underwhelmingly short chapter, especially since it's chapter 40, but it's been a lazy week and haven't had the motivation to write, again. Don't worry though, I'll keep writing and posting every week, a short chapter is better than no chapter at all.


	41. What A Clown

Ruby felt like her body was being torn apart and dragged upwards piece by piece, it was an awful though not painful, sensation. She went up and up, until she arrived at a sudden stopped, and the second later felt her lungs fill up with air again.

She fell flat on the ground, disoriented and confused, "O-OnE By oNE." the distorted voice slowly mattered, stepping closer to her.

She burned the few energies she could muster, and rolled on her back, smacking into the wall, a look of horror crossing her face once she realized she didn't have Crescent Rose in hand. They were inside the empty dormitory room of an unknown first-year Team.

The creepy assassin stood there, as their Stand slowly emerged from the ceiling above, in an incredibly theatrical way, almost as if showing off. And if there's one thing it could show off, it's just how incredibly creepy it was.

The Stand looked like two halves glued together, one a white half with dark lines, similar to a skeleton, and the other half black with white lines, similar more to a clown, both halves with a creepy, white-toothed grin on their faces. The Stand twitched its head around, in sync with their user, one eye blinking at a time.

"M-M-My StANd A-ABBILITYYY IS TO MAKE EVERYTHING SHARP!" the user suddenly screamed, stopping in place to laugh.

Insane Clown Posse twitched and fidgeted erratically, until it suddenly stopped. "BUT! NOT THE GROUND! ThaaT WOULD BE D-DANGERouuuusssssssssss….."

And then, it stopped completely, staring blankly at the poor, confused Ruby.

She slowly stood up, "What do you want from us?!" she shouted, clutching at her shoulder, there were a few cuts in her dress here and there, and few that went skin-deep.

Complete silence.

The assassin tilted its head, and slowly began walking forward, mouth slightly agape and head tilted in a dead expression, they walked past the Stand, who stood still like a statue. It may have been Ruby's imagination, but she felt as if the more they moved, the more the lights of the room flickered on and off.

She felt her breath get stuck in her lungs, no creature she ever fought could even compare to what was happening right in front of her, the usually brave Huntress was, quite simply, scared shitless.

* * *

 

"Damn it!" Yang slammed her foot on the ground, making it tremble a bit, "Just what the hell happened?!"

"That Stand must have some sort of 'secondary ability' too, other than making things sharp!" Blake analyzed, ears twitched heavily and nervously under her bow, so much so that it began to get annoying for her, "It must be 'travelling' through doors..." she hissed slightly under her breath, and took off her bow without thinking.

"W-Woah!" Josuke was taken rather aback by the...unusual growths on Blake's head, "Are those...cat ears?!"

Blake's eyes widened up, "Ah, we forgot to tell him!" she exclaimed, the twitching in her ears calming down a bit. Despite her secret being revealed to her Team, she still didn't exactly feel comfortable without that bow yet, she felt...embarrassed, like she was exposing something she shouldn't.

She swiftly put it back on, leaving Josuke in a bit of confusion, "We can explain this to you late, for now let's find Ruby!" Weiss stated, and the others couldn't help but agree.

They all went to move, but in the hallway in front of them, they saw something...strange, random objects laid on the ground: books, cutlery, pencils, plates, trays…

"Okay, I'm pretty sure those weren't there before!" Yang stated, pointing at them.

"What is hap-Oh..." Josuke turned around, and suddenly, that same amount of junk was behind them, and all of it had a strange shine with them, the walls, the ceiling, they shined too.

"I think...we fell right into a trap."

A strange, high-pitched laughter from below the floorboards was heard.

* * *

 

"Want? Want? Want? DEATH. DEATH. DEATH!" the assassin screamed as they suddenly bull rushed towards Ruby, their eyes blood red and with one open palm raised in front of them..

Ruby quickly dodged out of they way and tried to land a kick at the assailant.  _Considering how fast its going, it should impact on the wall and stagger!_ Ruby thought as she raised her leg, ready for the kick.

Before the Stand user's sharp palm could land against the wall, they made a sharp turn towards her, and swung their arm towards her, like a sharp knife.

_Shiik._

Her Aura made a static-like noise as their finger scratched her cheek.

That one single hit was all it took to bring the shield down.

She jumped back, placing her fists forward, imitating a position her half-sister got in when trying to defend.

_What am I supposed to do?!_

"Hmmmmmmmmm….YoU WANNA Play?!" the voice went much more high-pitched, childish, a voice that could fit in a horror movie.

The Stand just looked with that big wide grin, mismatched arms crossed together.

"FFFiine...Iwontkillyoufornow." the assassin said incredibly quickly, bowing its head down.

"P-Presentation: I'm F-Freak. Y-You?"

"Uuh..." Ruby stared at Freak with confusion in her eyes, was she actually been attacked or was she just hallucinating? At this point she couldn't tell, "I..."

"RubyRose." Freak cut her off, their voice turning into a high-pitched, fast, feminine voice "Doortoldme"

Ruby stepped away, she looked around, every single piece of furniture in the room had that unnatural shine on them, she looked behind her to make sure she didn't bump on them "What're you planning?! Leave us alone!"

Freak tilted its head sideways, so much so that at first Ruby thought the neck was going to crack and their head roll on the floor.

"Letsplayfair...OKAY?!" they shouted, the voice turning into a much more masculine one in a second. "Game game game...Game of death! Game of life! GAMEGAMEGAME!" Freak rambled on and on, drooling and barking like a dog with rabies. The more time seemed to pass, the more out of control Freak seemed to get, but...why?

Before she could think of an answer, again they charging forward without thought towards her.

She dodged sideways, despite the power being able to cut through the Aura of a trained warrior easily, the moves of the assailants were painfully easy to predict.

How could she fight back with a foe like this? She either to distract them and hope for the others to find her and save her, or she would have had to use her brains and not her muscles, for once.

Finally, their Stand, called 'Insane Clown Posse' started moving, well, it was less of a movement and more 'hovering', the Stand started to slowly go down, and get engulfed by the floorboards, arms crossed over the chest like a mummy.

And then it was gone from her sight

Ruby felt like she was going to get a real bad headache, what was she supposed to do? Freak would just keep trying to charge her, and surely the Stand would try to attack her from behind, from the walls, there seemingly was no way out, the door too was surely been 'sharpened'. Could she really do nothing?

_Wait._ She thought,  _I have an idea!_

****[To Be Continued]-- > _  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Nothing that the enemy Stand user says are typos or errors, by the way.  
> 2\. Again, sorry for the short chapter, and sorry to the ones that would prefer more focus to the other group, we'll got there.


	42. Freak

"Look out!" Yang shouted, noticing something coming from below, in the spaces between the floorboards. A large white spike emerged from the ground, and Josuke's foot wasn't impaled by a hair's breath.

"What kind of attack is this?!" Blake shouted, looking down at the spike, it had that same shine that the 'sharpened' items had, "Wait, this seems made of..."

Then, another spike came forth from the ground, aimed at her, the sharp end passed through the Aura and slightly pierced her thigh, she stumbled back, she cussed under her breath, but she managed to see something to the now blood-covered spike: Letters. The spike was made of pages.

"Then..It can make spikes out of anything too? How many specific skills does this Stand have?!" Blake shouted, they were properly trapped now, by the sharpened objects around them and the spikes arriving from below.

Suddenly, the group could hear the sound of a crying baby, "W-What was th-" Josuke couldn't even finish the phrase before a flurry of paper spikes attacked all of them at the same time.

All those spikes caused scratches and bleeding among the entire group, but none seemed to be aimed at particularly vital points, it was more like the spikes were trying to stop them, stall for time, rather than kill them outright.

Crazy Diamond quickly appeared, an angered look on its face as it reached out towards Blake, Weiss and Yang, and just as it was about to heal them..

Another spike, much bigger than the ones before, sprouted from the ground, and…

It impaled Crazy Diamond's arm cleanly, passing it side to side. "F-Fuck!" he let out as the huge wound copied on his arm, he immediately de-summoned his Stand to avoid further damage, and held onto his gushing wound.

"Holy c-!"

"I-It's okay, Yang..." he fell to his knees, a smile on his face, "I actually hoped that would happen, if I'm right, the thing making these spikes should show itself! ."

Then, the large paper spike began to slowly unwrap itself, going back to regular papers and folding down the floorboards, possibly going back to their original books, but that was not the only thing that happened,  _something_ was revealed under the newly formed, and un-formed, spike by Crazy Diamond's power.

A large, bald head, with blank white eyes and fat cheeks, ghastly pale with black marks along the face, it looked like a baby's head, only it was the size of an adult's head.

The others, even Josuke, let out a shriek of terror and surprise, the  _thing_ hissed at them, and its head went back into the ground.

"W-Was that another Stand?!" Weiss asked, shivering.

"No, that can't be, the power was too similar, Josuke! Stand users only can have one Stand, right?"

Josuke's eyes were still wide, both from the pain of his wound and the sheer shock, "A-Ah, yes, normally, but some people can have 'swarm' Stands, though that definitely does not seem to be the case here!"

"Then this must be some sort of 'extension' to that Stand, we must find a way to lure it out and defeat it before it kills us all!

"Don't say that!" said a panicking Weiss

Blake looked at Weiss with a deadpan expression, "And what should I say? 'Before it drags us down for its birthday party'? I'm sorry, but that does not seem very likely." she said in a sarcastic, ever-so-slightly bitter tone.

* * *

Ruby panted and sweated, starting to get tired from dodging around, Freak's Stand continuously threw sharpened objects towards her, while Freak themselves tried to slice her up with their own sharpened hand, and the attacker didn't seem at all to get tired from repeating the same attack over and over and over, instead they seemed to be having the time of their life, screaming and howling, their movements becoming faster and faster.

She didn't know for how much longer she would have been able to keep that up, her lungs started to hurt, and her heart felt like it was going to explode. She had to enact her plan, and fast.

She gritted her teeth, taking heavy breaths as she dodged yet another attack, "FUN! FUN! FUN FUN FUN FUN!" Freak repeated, laughing and waving its hands in circles. Ruby gathered as much energy her body could muster, and...she stood still.

Insane Clown Posse emerged from the walls, grabbed a shining pen, and threw it towards her. The sharpened object travelled across the room like an arrow, and in the very last second, Ruby activated her Semblance.

It was only for a few seconds, but it was enough, Freak's bloodshot eyes widened up as they saw the giant red bullet going towards them at high speed, they immediately raised a hand forward, but before they could get a chance at slicing, Ruby changed course. Freak's hand followed her like a snake.

_This is my chance!_  She thought, and charged towards Freak, going as fast as she could and then passed by its side

Freak's eyes went all over the place in confusion, the hand tried to follow her, but in that attempt…

Freak's hand passed by its flank, cutting off a chunk of themselves, they let out a nearly inhuman scream, falling on the ground and holding onto their bleeding side. A few inches deeper and their guts would have been spilled out.

Ruby kneeled over, adrenaline dying down and a veil of exhaustion falling over her, along with a nice bit of nausea.

She closed her eyes and collapsed.

* * *

Beneath the ground, the flurry of paper spikes became more and more intense, "UWAAAAH!" the baby-like Stand shouted from below. The grup tried their best to avoid them, but the space in the hallway was quickly becoming smaller and smaller, and they were surrounded by sharpened objects.

Josuke screamed as a spike pierced his leg, "A-Argh! Damn it! This thing hates me!" he shouted, and despite the pain managed to push his impaled legs off the spike, and then rolled away from another spike, bumping into Yang.

"Hey! Watch where you-Ah!" she shouted, a spike piercing her from behind, "T-This is humiliating..."

Various glyphs appeared on the ground under Weiss, making her speed, up and avoid the spikes with much more ease than the others, "This is the most I can do, it's going way too fast for me to concentrate on doing much else!"

Blake used her feline agility to dodge around and jump over the spikes, "Josuke!" she called out, "Can you do that again?!"

He dusted off his pompadour, looking up at her, "Do what? Touch the spikes to 'fix' them into their basic components again? Y'know, I'd prefer not to have my arm impaled again!"

Another spike raised up, piercing Josuke's side, as he slowly tried to stand up, then the spike went quickly back down in the floorboards..

"How're we gonna defeat this thing then?!" Yang shouted, yet another paper spike trying to impale her.

Blake took deep breaths, there surely had to be a 'weakness' to such an ability, but what could it have been…? As she looked over at Yang, a sudden bolt of genius light up in her mind.

"I think I understand how the stand tracks us!" she proclaimed, "It attacks us through..." a spike tried to pierce her, but she quickly jumped, "listening to us!"

"It attacks the one being the loudest!"

The others seemed to be wanting to speak, but Blake quickly shushed them, "If we can lure it out like this...then we'll have a shot at defeating it in one blow!"

As if to prove her theory, a spike tried to repeatedly stab her from down below, but was unsuccessful, "Who volunteers at luring it out raise their hand!"

Yang's arm quickly sprung upwards, an angry look on her face.

Blake nodded, and looked over at the bleeding JoJo, "Josuke!" Blake called out, "Come on, you have to do it!"

"Bu-"

"DO IT!" she ordered, and a spike started to form at her feet, and while she slightly cut her ankle she managed to run away, it seemed as the louder they went, the more accurate the spike would have been. "I know you're asking yourself how you're not going to lose a finger or two."

"But if I'm right, then there must be 'somewhere' on the spike where it's not sharp, and that would be..."

Yang's eyes widened in realization, "The base of the spike! If the Stand User is not immune to the sharp effect, then surely where he hides must not be sharp!", she let out a crooked grin, "Blake, you're a genius."

And a fearsome temporary leader, but she let that part slide.

Josuke sighed, but ultimately couldn't refuse, he nodded and tried to sneak in closer to Yang.

"OI! IS THIS ALL YOU'VE GOT?!" She taunted as loud as she could be, and then…

A big paper spike, much larger than the others, quickly went up from the ground, if Yang hadn't dodged, she would have been impaled to death.

Josuke gritted his teeth and summoned Crazy diamond, who rushed over towards the spike, upon closer inspection, it seemed that Blake's intuition was correct, the 'base' of the span wasn't shiny, like the rest of it.

Crazy D pressed a single finger against the base, and the entire spike began unwrapping.

"W-WAAAAH!" The baby-like Stand appeared from beneath the spike, and quickly Yang ran over and grabbed it by the head, pulling the entire body from the floor.

"Gotcha!" she shouted, grinning, the Stand was as big as a dog, with various small spikes appearing on its body.

She launched the Stand in the air, and with an "OORA!" slammed her fist against its stomach.  _Crunch._

* * *

Freak suddenly spat blood on the ground and groaned, making Ruby look over at them.

"I...Have been defeated...Completely..." they said in a masculine voice.

"We...Failed...The Door..." They then said in a feminine voice.

Ruby blinked, and staid on the ground, looking at the fallen assassin, who for reason smiled.

"C-C-Can we...talk?" Freak asked in a masculine voice, turned towards Ruby.

She slowly nodded.

"M-Me...We...Three..." They said a high-pitched voice, different from the other two…

"Story...Story..."

* * *

Freak ran, ran inside the woods, smudged makeup on their face, "The circus...never!" they repeated in their three voices as they ran. They were three, merged in body, mind, and soul, they were a freak accident that happened at their birth, they 'merged' with each other, the brother merged with the sister, and they merged with the smaller twin.

They were abandoned, left alone in the cold. A circus group, who saw profit in their condition, picked them up and forced them to work for them, they would wear black and white makeup and be paraded in front of a crowd, who either laughed or took pity on them, sometimes they were even forced to go nude to show off how much of an 'accident' they were.

Even as the years passed, Freak's condition didn't allow them to live alone, they always needed help with something, even if it was something as basic as eating the crusty bread the circus gave them for lunch.

The whippings, the insults, they also worsened the situation, their stability started to break, slowly and over time, their mind began being more and more cofnusing, the three voices screaming at the same time and trying to take control…

Eventually, once the circus started to go towards a village near Vale, Freak snapped, killed their personal 'bodyguard' who kept them in check, and escaped, far, far away.

In that forest, be it due to chance or fate itself, they found a ginger-haired man, wielding a golden arrow, and he spoke these words to them:

"Poor thing, I can help you." He said in a compassionate voice.

"H-H-Help…?"

The man got closer, "I want you to work with me, I am called The Door Between Worlds, but you can just call me The Door."

They hesitated, their mind confused, what should they do? What should they do? What was the 'right' choice? Was there one?

The Door snapped them out of this, "However...I am afraid I'll have to put you through a dangerous 'test'"

Freak looked up, curious.

"I'm going to have to stab you with this arrow, and there's a chance you will die. I won't force you to do it, however. The choice is yours." he said in a reassuring manner, pointing the arrow at them.

Freak didn't say anything, their face twisted and turned as the three voices screamed, they grabbed the tip of the arrow and forcibly thrusted it towards their chest.

The Door was set aback by this sudden action, and stepped back, but he was clearly impressed.

Freak survived.

* * *

Ruby couldn't help but drop a few tears as the story ended, she had a sudden feeling of regret and guilt, but she tried to reassure herself:  _I didn't have a choice._

"We feel...calm..."

"This is not...bad..."

Those were their last words, their body slowly dissapeared, turning into light, that went in three different directions, even the blood on the ground disappeared with the body.

"Bye..." she couldn't help but say as she slowly stood up.

There she noticed, in the middle of the unfamiliar dorm room laid a scrap of paper, "Another piece." she whispered to herself as she approached it.

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. As you may have noticed, the reason why I referred to Freak as ‘it’ or ‘they’ is because they have no mental or even physical gender, being the combination of three different bodies and minds.
> 
> 2\. To clarify: The baby-like Stand (That is just an extension of ICP) belongs to the ‘younger’ twin, while FCP itself belongs to the ‘older’ twins


	43. Down The 'Rabbit ' Hole

Josuke, Yang, Blake and Weiss stormed in the room of the unknown first-year Team, and there, they saw Ruby, grabbing onto a piece of paper.

"Finally!" Weiss sighed in relief

"Where is the enemy Stand User?!" Josuke shouted, looking around with his fist clenched.

"O-Oh?" She turned around, quickly wiping away her eyes, and she took a deep breath.

Yang slowly approached her, concerned "Ruby...why were you-"

Ruby waved her hand dismissively, "It's fine, it's fine, I dealt with the enemy, and they dropped this." she showed them the piece of paper, which had string of decoded symbols and numbers.

Blake's eyes widened and she smiled, walking over to Ruby and grabbing the piece of paper, "Yes, with this, we're one step closer to decoding that diary!"

Ruby looked over at Josuke "You're...bleeding a lot, do you need a hand?" she said, concerned

"Nah, nah." he said, smiling, "Put a bandage on it and no-one will notice, trust me."

Weiss looked around at the messy room, books, pens and various objects laid on the ground, "This place is a mess..."

"We better fix it up before the students come back!" Ruby stated.

"What?! I'm so not doing that after that fight!" Yang backed away as she said that, raising her hands in the air.

"Same." said Josuke

"Aw come on! It'll be a breeze with your Stand!" she walked over, "If you're not doing it, I'm gonna do it myself!"

"Aww, fine..." Josuke said after a bit of hesitation.

"Oh, you're cleaning a stranger's room?" Blake asked, walking towards the door and giving Josuke a pat on the back, "Good luck with that." she said as she calmly walked out.

"See ya." Yang gave them a peace sign before walking away with Blake.

Without even saying anything, Weiss walked out.

"Wow, really?"

Polnareff rested in the shade, the sun had at this point completely about to set, but there was still an unnatural amount of heat in the air. He fanned himself and looked around, thinking.

"Maybe I'm being too paranoid…?" he thought out loud, at that point anything even slightly out of the ordinary made him panic, it could've been anything, a Stand attack, a Grimm, or some other unknown power of this world.

He took a deep breath, both the trip to Egypt and this journey through Remnant definitely made him, and surely his companions, more paranoid than ever before.

He looked up, "Hey, the hell is this smell?"

He turned to the side, outside of the small shaded alley where there was still a little bit of light.

The grass was burning!

"A-Ah!" he freaked out and ran towards the small fire and in a hurry stepped on it repeatedly. The soles of his shoe was slightly burned, but it went out.

He sighed in relief, but then a worried expression covers his face, "How the hell am I gonna adapt to this place?"

* * *

_**One Week Later:** _

"Still nothing?" Ruby asked, an arm dangling from the side of her bed.

Blake sighed, "Nothing." she said, letting the book drop over her head. "No matter how I look at it, the code is still incomplete, there at least has to be one more piece to the code."

"But...We haven't been attacked at all these past few days."

"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Ruby."

"It's not like I want us to be attacked, but we have no other way to decipher that code, doing it on our own would take too much time."

She jumped off the bed, looking out the window, "The others are already out with Josuke, are you not going with them?"

Blake shook her head "I am going to take a nap."

Ruby looked disappointed as she walked over to the door, putting on her boots, "Well, all right...Just...Don't work yourself to the bone, all right?" she said, before closing the door, leaving Blake alone.

**Meanwhile, at the village:**

"Hey, you three." the deep voice of a man called out to the three stand users, who were walking down the street.

"Oh, it's the village chief." Kakyoin smiled, cordially waving his hand at him.

The village chief had a stern and severe look on his face, "You three said that you would be available for some 'cleaning up' jobs, right?"

"Uh, you mean like, Grimm slaying jobs, right?" Polnareff asked.

The chief nodded, "Well, we had no problems with them when you came in the village...Up until today that is."

"Get to the point, what do we have to do?" Jotaro bluntly asked.

"We have good reasons to think that there's something lurking in the underground bunker of the village."

"Wait, there's a bunker down here?!" Polnareff asked, surprised.

"Indeed!" the village chief said with a sudden big grin on his face, "I'll let you know that this village was a very tactical point during the Great War, and-"

"All right, we get it, we get it." Jotaro interrupted him. "We kill the Grimms in the bunker, and you'll reward us, right?"

The chief nodded.

"All right."

"Wait! We didn't agree on this!" Polnareff said, taken by surprise.

"I myself agree with Jotaro, it'll be a nice change of pace, and a good way to take the dust off you-know-what, metaphorically of course."

"Two to one vote, let's go." Jotaro turned around, tipping his hat over his head, not because he wanted to look cool, but more because he wanted a bit more protection against the sunlight's glare. "Where's this bunker of yours?"

The village chief walked over, walking past them, "I'll show you, follow me."

* * *

"Woah..." Polnareff looked up.

"I have to say, for being built more than a century ago, this is impressive." Kakyoin added.

A large, round circular metal door laid in front of them, placed slightly into the mountain, and it was completely open too.

"Is it always open like this?" Jotaro asked, examining it.

The village chief shook his head, "No, it's always locked, actually, someone or something must have managed to crack it open, though I wouldn't know why or how."

"Anything else we need to know?" Kakyoin asked, getting slightly closer to the open bunker entrance, and looking back at the chief.

"If you don't come back in two days, I'll assume you three failed."

"So in other words, you'll assume we got killed in a horrible fashion and just move on? So touching..." Polnareff rolled his eyes.

"Oh, we'll also close off the door to avoid whatever's down there to escape."

"What the-?! Then how are we supposed to open it?!" Polnareff shouted, this was looking worse and worse by the second.

The chief laughed, "Oh, you won't, you'll have to look for the alternate, hidden exit placed here on the map." he stated, walking over to Jotaro and handing him an old, rolled up piece of paper. Then, he turned around and walked away, "Good luck, try not to get mauled!"

"Wow, are all country folk really this passive-aggressive towards foreigners?" Kakyoin asked

"Yeah, really..."

"Quit bitching, let's go." Jotaro said, stepping inside the bunker's entrance, and of course it was completely pitch black inside, and it went deeper and deeper, like a rabbit hole.

In the end, they nodded, and stepped inside, and the door closed on its own just as said.

* * *

"Man, is this really a bunker? Feels more like a tunnel." Polnareff said after stepping into a pile of slimy mud, letting out a noise of disgust as he tried to kick it off, there were no sources of light, only a couple of what looked like oil lanterns hanging empty from the ceiling or broken in pieces on the floor.

Kakyoin shushed him, and then whispered, low enough that only the three could hear, "Let's lay low, who knows what could be here.

Jotaro took out a Scroll from his pocket and illuminated the map, trying to make sense of it, "This place seems pretty linear, there are three different corridors which lead to various roams, but they all go lead to this room."

And indeed, at the end of the three corridors, to the point where they all connected, was a big room, the biggest shown in the map, in there there was also an X drawn with a pencil on the walls, the only thing indicating the room's utility was a barely readable scribble saying "Soundproof Chamber." "And that has to be the secret exit." Kakyoin said, pointing at the X..

And not before long they arrived at a fork, and just as expected, they heard... _things_ from those corridors, growls, snarls, hisses, sniffs, grunts, scratches. Each of those corridors was filled with nightmarish sounds

Jotaro tentatively stepped forward, but Kakyoin suddenly walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him, "Wait, I've got an idea."

"Huh? Make it quick." Jotaro coldly said, but they were used to that attitude of his.

"If we attack one corridor all at the same time, it would take more time. What if instead we all took a corridor by ourselves?"

"Eeeeh? Kakyoin, are you outta your mind? Jotaro's the only one with a stand strong to take on an entire pack of those things without fear."

"Remember, Polnareff, these Grimm are simple creatures, unlike our human opponents they cannot make complicated plans or stratagems, they only got brute force with them, with a few techniques of ours, we should probably be fine."

Polnareff crossed his arms, "I'm not okay with this, but I'll let Jotaro decide." he looked over at Jotaro, "So? You're basically our leader at this point."

He nodded, "Fine then, I'll take the left corridor." he said, pushing away Kakyoin slightly, "Kakyoin will take the central corridor, and Polnareff will take the right one, is that fine?"

They both nodded, "Now, quickly, before they sense us."

_**Meanwhile, in a deeper part of the bunker.** _

"So, you placed the Seed in a squallid place like this?" Fiore asked, laughing and tapping her cane on the ground as she walked around the room.

"You and your fancy words...And no, I did not place it here, this is just a good place to hide in, and Meditate, but your little friends out there are causing too much nosie for my tastes." Brick stated, sitting cross-legged on the ground, his hood down.

"Oh, pardon them, I can't do anything about that." she turned around, facing away from her fighting partner.

"I wonder...Why does he give you  _that_ so eagerly to you, and hasn't even considered giving it to me?" Fiore asked, now in a lower, much more serious tone.

"This again? I already told you."

"Oh, sorry, my ears might need some cleaning, because I've yet to hear a clear explanation."

"The Master cares about you, and he's showing it to you this way, he cares far less about me, he just sees me as a talented apprentice, he would not shed a single tear on my lifeless body. You, however..."

"So you're saying he wants to protect me? By not allowing me to get stronger?" Fiore turned around, clearly upset.

"The Master sees you as his daughter, but not me, it really hasn't it you?"

"So, although we are both his offspring, he shows concern over me and none to you? That sounds like bullcra-" Fiore stopped, looking suddenly flustered, she turned around and coughed for her sudden vulgar way of talking.

"Oh my dear little sister..." Brick stood up, giant arms crossed, "Do you really want to drink it? Feast on the Grimm Essence? Suffer uncontrollable pain in order to grant yourself more power?"

Brick walked over to his sister, looking down at her, "In the Maste-No, in father's eyes, you can't."

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I'm so, so sorry for this chapter being delayed, I had to go with my family and FanFiction's upload system was being an ass, but it seems I finally did it!


	44. The Flower

"Emerald Cannon!" Hierophant Green shot out a large, heavy crystal towards the pulsing red and black growth that was blocking its way. The large bullet passed through the single, giant eye of the Grimm and impaled it, and with a scream it died, dissolving in black smoke.

Kakyoin wiped off the sweat from his forehead, "That was a new one..." he said, looking around the dusty room, it was filled with one would assume were bunk beds, but were now torn apart, full of dust and filth, just staying around in that room looked like it could give you some sort of disease.

Kakyoin coughed, Hierophant Green used its hands to create that green liquid energy, that gave off a slight glow that illuminated the area, like a liquid green lantern.

Kakyoin moved away a noodle of red hair away from his face and looked around for any more threats, after a few seconds he turned around and took a sigh of relief, no Grimms remained, that was the last room.

According to the plan, the ones that finished clearing out their corridor should have went back to the starting position. He walked out and walked backwards, illuminating the way with the Stand's energy.

Jotaro was casually laying his back on the mossy wall, flipping a dusty old coin in the air, he quickly placed it in his pocket and looked over ad Kakyoin as he approached, walking out of the central corridor, "Where's Polnareff? I feared I was the last one."

Jotaro shrugged, "He probably found some sort of issue along the way." he took out the map, and looked at it in the dark, tracing a finger on it to better see the outline of the figure, "His is the longest corridor out of the three."

Suddenly, a sound akin to a rock being smashed open arrived from the right corridor.

"We...Should probably help him out."

_**Meanwhile:** _

The ape-like Grimm snarled and slammed a fist on the ground, cracking it open but missing Polnareff.

" _Aaaah_! Taste electricity, bastard!" Polnareff shouted, as Silver Chariot covered its sword in yellow Dust and the blade started to crackle with electrical energy. The Frenchman's Stand lunged forward, but the Grimm seemed to have predicted him, it dodged aside, only enough to avoid the rapier in that narrow place, and rammed its clenched fist in Silver Chariot's head.

"G-Guh!" The punch really made a dent on Silver Chariot's helmet, and it made Polnareff leap back from the hit, "H-hah, I need more speed!" he shouted, Silver Chariot stepped back.

_Clank_

Silver Chariot's chest armor popped off, and Silver Chariot again launched forward, rapier forward. The gorilla Grimm tried to do the same strategy twice, and...it seemed to work at first.

From the Grimm's perspective that is, what the giant white-scaled gorilla's fist hit was actually an after-image of Silver Chariot.

Silver Chariot was right behind it.

"Take this! Oryaa!" Polnareff shouted as Silver Chariot's rapier started thrusting at the skull of the monster. Such an unexpected attack proved fatal for the Grimm, the rapier pierced its head side to side and the electricity caused uncontrolllable convulsions in its body, in less than a few seconds it dropped dead on the floor with a loud scream.

Polnareff placed his hands on his knees and took some deep breaths, "Phew...Now that….Was a though one..." he said between a breath and the next, talking to nobody in particular.

"Polnareff, are you okay?" a familiar voice called him out from behind, two figures ran towards him, their face becoming clear only when they got closer.

Polnareff waved at Kakyoin, "Yeah, all good...It's just that this huge thing just kinda...got pooped out of the ground! That's the only way I can explain it!"

"Pooped? Are you joking right now?" It was hard to tell in the dark, but Kakyoin was probably rolling his eyes.

"I'm not! A strange hole appeared from the ground and this thing exited out of it! It was like...a portal of some kind, it's like it was summoned or something!"

Jotaro looked around, and then passed by him, "If you're right, and someone is indeed 'summoning' the Grimm, they must be somewhere here, and the only place that would make sense would be the Soundproof Chamber."

"But implying someone with this ability exists, how are they able to use it? Is it a Stand of some sort?" Kakyoin thought out loud. The simple thought with a Stand that is able to manipulate those beings of pure destruction was terrifying.

Jotaro placed his hands inside his pockets, "I guess we'll have to see..." he stated, looking forward.

"Man, do you have to try and look cool for everything?" Polnareff said, sitting on the mossy and damp ground, only seeing the faint outline of Jotaro.

"Hm?" Jotaro turned around, honestly not knowing what Polnareff was trying to imply with that.

He sighed, "I guess you're just like this by nature, huh?"

[LineNeeded]

The door of the Soundproof Room spanned almost the entire wall, it was huge, and very technologically advanced for being made more than 100 years before. It was like a gigantic vault, protecting  _something_ , though whatever was protected there was probably been lost long before the Stand Users arrived to that world.

"It's locked, how are we going to get in?" Kakyoin asked, knocking on the rusty metal vault door, it was still incredibly solid.

"Leave it to me." Jotaro stated, walking forward, he clenched his fist, and Star Platinum appeared in front of him, rippling with energy.

The Stand pulled its arm back, took a deep breath, sucking up air through its mouth, and let out a loud  _ **ORA**_  as it smashed the vault-like door with its fist, easily creating a man-sized hole through it.

"A beast as always." Kakyoin commented.

When the three stepped inside, it was completely dark, somehow even darker than the rest of the bunker. But before one of them could usher a word, the lights suddenly turned on. It was so sudden the three had to cover their eyes.

A slow clap was heard, coming from the middle of the room. Jotaro stepped forward, growling under his breath, he slowly forced his eyes to open up.

A young lady sat at a lonely chair, in the middle of the room, a cane laying next to her. "Good job getting here, good job indeed."

His eyes widened, and then narrowed again, " _You."_

"W-What the, I recognize this voice!" Kakyoin shouted, forcing his eyes open too, and he quickly stepped back at the sight of her.

"You're the one that destroyed our hideout!" Polnareff shouted, pointing at her.

She laughed, covering her mouth with her palm, "Indeed, indeed." she stood up, grabbing the cane, "My name is Fiore, Hunter of the Silver Records." she bowed elegantly, "At your service."

Suddenly, large pools of a strange black substance started to appear behind her, and loud, inhuman noises started to fill up the Soundproof Chamber.

"However, it seems I will have to give you a goodbye, it's such a shame." she said as from the pools started to form horrible creatures, Beowolves, Ursas, and various other scary monsters, and they were all slowly making their way towards the three, completely ignoring Fiore.

"Woah woah woah woah!" Polnareff backed away.

"You're the summoner, then!"

"Indeed, it's my divine gift, my 'Semblance', a one-of-a-kind ability to summon such beautiful creatures and control them in places where heavy amounts of negative emotions still linger." she walked over to a Beowolf, and placed a hand on its head, petting it, the Grimm didn't react negatively, instead seemingly leaning into the pet, like an overgrown dog.

She turned around, giving them her shoulders, as more and more Grimm appeared, they were at least in the 50s by now. "Now, I must be off."

"Wait!" Polnareff shouted, an angry look on his face "Where's your buddy? The big guy with the axe?!"

She turned around, smirking, "Now why should I tell you?" she giggled, covering her mouth again, before suddenly disappearing in a flash of light.

The ground beneath them started to tremble as the horde approached., they multiplied like bunnies, there were at least 300 of them packed like sardines in that room.

"W-What the hell is this power?!" Jotaro shouted,

"Run for it!" Polnareff shouted, already ready to run away with his tail between his legs.

"No, if we leave these Grimm be, they may destroy the whole village!" Kakyoin shouted, summoning Hierophant Green.

"I feared you would say that..."

[To Be Continued]-->


	45. Rage Awakened

Star Platinum's fist broke through the large Beowolf', smashing the white bone-like armor and smashed clean through the chest, making it explode on impact in black goo, and the Grimm fell on the ground, obliterated.

Silver Chariot quickly sliced apart an Ursa Major's throat as it raised its front paws to maul Polnareff, leaving itself open to the attack. And then promptly the Frenchman jumped on the head, using his own weight to smash the bear-like monster to the ground, snapping its neck, "H-Hah! Take that!" Polnareff mocked, though he was surprised himself that it worked.

Hierophant Green used numerous Emerald Splashes to take care of the smaller critters, sending them flying back, but no matter how many he killed, more and more Grimm crawled out of the pools of darkness at the back of the Chamber, in a seemingly never ending wave.

Jotaro frowned, eye twitching slightly, for how long have they've been fighting these things? At least half an hour. "These bastards just keep coming, this is not working!"

"We have to find a way to close up those Grimm-spawning...things!" Even Kakyoin was at a loss for words, taken over by panic. He backed away, closer to the Vault-like door and the hole that Star Platinum punched open, "I think a temporary retreat is in order."

Jotaro growled, Star Platinum kneed another dark monstrosity in the jaw, breaking it. Without saying anything, Star Platinum suddenly plunged its fist downwards, and punched the ground in a perfect man-sized circle as easily as cutting paper, and then pulled it out of the ground, holding it in its hands with ease and over its head with easy.

Star Platinum flew by the back of Jotaro, and slammed the punch-carved ruck on the man sized hole with a loud  _TWOMP_ , closing it off completely.

"What the hell are you doing?! Polnareff shouted, before a claw scratched Silver Chariot's chest, and the same wound appeared on Polnareff's, "G-Guh..Damn it, forgot for a second I popped the armor off earlier..." he muttered, clutching at his chest

Then, Silver Chariot quickly sliced off the Beowolf's ear and kicked it away.

"If those things managed to get through the hole, we'd be finished, the only way of getting out is through  _there_." he stated, and Star Platinum promptly pointed at the other side of the room, 'accidentally' gouging a lounging Grimm's eyes out at the same time.

"But there's just a wall!" Kakyoin shouted.

"It's in the map, so it must be there..." Jotaro looked down as Star Platinum let out a rush of punches forward, mincing the Grimm in its way. "If the village chief has lied to us, I'm gonna knock all his goddamn teeth off."

Jotaro breathed heavily as Star Platinum punched away yet another large Grimm to shreds, he didn't want to show it, but e was also starting to reach his limit, even a fighting-based Stand like Star Platinum could only take so much of a never-ending fight, and he was starting to get anxious, possibly even more than his companions, not that he could have lost or that he would have died, but that he'd somehow cause the ruin of his friends and the people of the village if those Grimm were set free.

He felt conflicted, how was he going to close off those pools of darkness? No matter how hard he tried to think, there just didn't seem to be any logical solution to this

The Grimm felt that internal struggle of his, much more intense than the emotions of both Polnareff and Kakyoin combined, they turned around, to face him, staring at him like he was a tasty treat, and around fifty Grimm lunged towards him at the same time.

Star Platinum punched most of them away, though some managed to scratch and wound its arms or hands in the mean time

An Alpha Beowolf, much larger than all other normal wolf-like creatures in the Chambers, fell down towards him with a growl, and with its front paws smashing against Star Platinum's chest and pushing down, claws digging into the purple-ish skin of the Stand.

The jojo was quickly pushed with his back on the ground as a result, the Alpha Grimm tried to push even more, and Jotaro could feel the painful sensation of his bones creaking.

Star Platinum coiled his fingers around the Beowolf's neck, pushing it away, even though Star Platinum possessed great strength, there wasn't much it could do in that position against an opponent that possibly matched it in raw strength, "A little help here?!" Jotaro shouted, Star Platinum kneeing the stubborn Grimm in the gut multiple times.

"Jotaro!" Kakyoin turned around, about to run towards him with as much speed as he could muster, his Stand floated in front of him and it pressed its hands together, gathering up an incredibly large amount of green energy, creating Kakyoin's largest Emerald Cannon yet, "Emerald Canno-"

But Kakyoin got a little bit too close.

The Beowolf digged out a claw from Star Platinum, letting blood flow out. It clenched it into a fist, and drove it right to Hierophant Green's head, bashing it and making Kakyoin fly back and hit the ground with a shout, blood flowing out of his temples, the Grimm slowly started to encircle him.

A sudden dark thought crossed Jotaro's mind: was he going to lose his friend another time? After he was given the chance to pretend his death never happened? A sudden burst of rage welled up in his chest, until it exploded, his expression turning into one with pure rage. Like his rage was fueling Star Platinum body it suddenly pulled away a hand from the Grimm's throat, and with a blood-curling battle cry his fist smashed against the throat of the Grimm.

The punch was even harder than Star Platinum's regular ones, it was the equivalent of a bomb going off right against its neck, the effect was predictable: The throat exploded, and the head rolled back on the ground, before slowly dissipated into heavy smoke.

Jotaro quickly stood up, and ran over to the surrounded Kakyoin "STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!"

The next moment, around Kakyoin dozens of Grimms laid dead on the ground, and instead there was a heavily breathing Jotaro, Kakyoin quickly stood up, confused, but before he could ask anything, Jotaro looked over at him for just a second.

And then, he ran, charging headfirst towards the huge Grimm horde.

"Jojo! What the hell are you doing?!" Polnareff shouted, Silver Chariot's was circling around a large group of Grimm, going at such a high speed it looked like there were multiple of it, and the Grimm swiped and bit all over the place, sensing the Stand, but unable to attack anything but the afterimages.

Star Platinum speared through the horde, bashing heads left and right while screaming, but this time his Stand wasn't the only one screaming, Jotaro also let out battle cries, his cool and composed expression completely dissapeared.

"H-His rage..." Kakyoin shouted, Jotaro was causing such a mess that they were completely ignoring the other Stand Users, "It finally showed up after all this time, he kept it inside him, never letting it take control of him, but now he has reached his limit., That stare he gave me..."

"ORA! ORA! OOOORAAA!"

"Was that of a man that went completely berserk!"

It was like his strength and speed increased ten-fold, not only of his stand, but himself as well. He punched the Grimm himself while being completely taken over by rage, and even those managed to crack their skulls.

Star Platinum was not only punching and kicking the monsters but also the ground itself, every hit at the floor felt like a small earthquake inside the Chamber. Star Platinum grabbed a couple of Grimms at the walls, leaving large craters on them.

As the ground shook the other two Stand Users were left speechless at Jotaro's sudden behavior, "T-That idiot! He's gonna get himself killed if he just runs in an endless horde like that!" he stepped forward, Silver Chariot at the ready.

Kakyoin grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping him "Jotaro's not an idiot, I don't know why, but even in that state...I feel like he's planning something."

Every move taken by him in his normal state was calculated and planned, like a professional chess player predicting and countering moves before they even happened, so that must've meant that this was in some way planned too.

_Or maybe…_  Kakyoin thought grimly, letting go of Polnareff,  _He's allowing his emotions to take control of him._ He shook his head, he needed to have faith in Jotaro.

The Soundproof Chamber looked rather clean and untouched by time before Jotaro went berserk, now it was covered in holes both in the walls and the ceiling due to him throwing Grimms around like large baseballs.

The entire room started to tremble, as if the very foundations of the underground building were starting to give in. A piece of the ceiling broke down completely, large chunks of rocks started falling inside the room, crushing entire groups of Grimm. Soon enough the entire ceiling cracked like an egshell, and the entire Chamber started crumbling down.

"A-Aah!" I think now it's a good time to RUN FOR REAL!" Polnareff shouted, starting to sprint towards the other side of the room, grabbing Kakyoin by the arm.

Another Alpha Grimm let out a large roar, and started running back towards the pools, dissolving back inside the liquid. The smaller ones began mimicking it and ran for the pools of darkness..

The entire horde started to disperse, even they figured out that if they remained there they would have all died.

Jotaro stood at the center of the room as rocks fell all around him, "Jotaro! Quick! You gotta come with us!" Kakyoin shouted, trying to catch his attention.

He turned towards them to look at them, and his body suddenly fell over, Star Platinum dissipating in the air.

"H-He pushed himself so hard he passed out!" Polnareff screamed out.

Polnareff and Kakyoin dodged a falling man-sized chunk of rock by a hair's breath as they ran towards him. They grabbed him by the legs and lifted him up, carrying him as they kept running.

"Where's the damn secret exit?!" Polnareff shouted as they ran towards the cracked wall, it was completely barren, not a single door or exit could be found.

"Wait, what's this?" Kakyoin kneeled down, there was a thick carpet on the floor, looking very out of place, he quickly kicked it away, and there laid a metal hatch.

"This is it! Let's get inside!"

The hatch easily opened, and they jumped inside, closing it behind them.

[To Be Continued]-->


	46. Bizarre Awakening

When Jotaro came back into consciousness, he looked around. He was in a dark place, the only thing he could see was the soft feeling of the bed under him.

He was full of sweat and a head-splitting headache, his memories were a blur. What happened in the chamber? Did they get out somehow? He took deep breaths, and tried to step down the bed. But as he quickly found out, his body felt...paralysed, a feeling of Deja-vu washed over him, he felt like something something like this already happened.

The area around him began to light up, and seemingly expand before his eyes, he was in a dark and gloomy forest, he and his bed surrounded by trees.

He struggled more, but he couldn't do anything, a voice ringed in his ears  **"Commencing Guardian Program. 'Sacrifice' Required."**

His eyes widened, as the memories flooded back as soon as he heard that inhuman voice. Two pairs of rotating disks appeared from the shadows of the trees. The large silver disks floated over to him. His struggles were for nothing, he felt as if he was locked on the bed with the world's strongest invisible chains.

A second later, the rotating disks rammed into him into his arms, he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, it was even more painful than before, the pure-silver disks began turning red.  **"Power Insufficient.** **Creating Backup."**

Two more disks appeared, and they jammed into his stomach, he screamed and clenched his eyes shut, he suffered injuries worse than these, but then why was he in such excruciating pain?

He woke up in a cold sweat.

He sat up on the bed, his body felt sluggish, and his yes started adjusting to the light, "Oh finally! What the hell took you so long?!" a familiar voice shouted at his side.

Polnareff was sitting on a chair next to the bed, his hair looked like a mess, like he didn't put enough gel in it.

Jotaro breathed heavily, and then looked at the other side, Kakyoin was also sitting there, playing on some sort of handheld game, he looked over at Jotaro. "Good morning."

"What...took me so long? How much did I sleep?"

"Oh, about a week straight, understandable, considering the mess you made down there." Kakyoin quickly replied, "It was cool and all, but you nearly gave me a heart attack after rushing in the horde like that."

Jotaro looked down, he felt like he had two big holes in his memory, what was he dreaming about? And what happened in that tunnel? "I did what?"

"You're gonna act all amnesiac now?" Polnareff asked with a smile on his face, leaning back on the chair.

"I'm not 'acting', I have no memory of what the hell you all are saying."

"Well, Jotaro's really not the joking type..."

"Fine fine, all you need to know is that you saved our sorry asses down there, so, thank you."

"Thank you as well." Kakyoin nodded.

Suddenly and without warning, two huge cuts suddenly opened on Polnareff's arms, one each. "W-Woah! What the hell?!"" he looked down, it wasn't deep, but enough to draw quite a lot of blood.

A second after, blood started to run down Kakyoin's arm, only visible once it reached the end of his sleeves and dripped on the hand. "A cut that re-opened?" Kakyoin asked himself, pulling his sleeve up and looking at the cut, identical to the one of Polnareff.

Jotaro pulled up his uniform's sleeves as well, and yet again, a cut identical to the others was on his arm.

Polnareff suddenly jumped up, "Think we're being attacked or somethin'?"

Their room was empty, there was no-one else except them, the mostly wooden room looked completely normal, except for the usual heat that covered every inch of the village.

Thirty seconds passed, a minute passed, and nothing else happened.

"Is it really just wounds opening back again?" Kakyoin said, pushing the sleeve back down.

Jotaro suddenly jumped down the bed and grabbed over his hat, putting it on, "Who cares about that. We must find that woman, and fast."

* * *

Ozpin walked around on the school ground, taking a stroll with Glynda Goodwitch. All was calm around until something vibrated in the Headmaster's pocket. He stopped dead in his tracks, and took out his Scroll.

Qrow was calling him. He raised an eyebrow, if he wanted to send information he sent it through messages, coded ones, it was rare of him to send a call when out on a mission.

"That is...Odd." said Glynda, peeking at the screen, "Wonder what kind of trouble he got in this time."

Ozpin didn't say anything to her, and instead just answered, holding his precious cane with one hand. "Hello?"

"Ozpin, it's me. I have some updates about the boy." Qrow's voice said.

He looked confused, "Boy? You mean the Stand User?" the Headmaster asked, how could Qrow have 'updates' about him? He wasn't supposed to be even near Vale.

"Yeah, and sorry. I came back one time without telling you to check things out. I think the boy got himself in some real trouble."

Ozpin looked around, making sure that nobody was around and that he looked as casual as possible, Glynda understood his intentions, silently nodded, and backed away.

"If you check under his clothes, you'll quickly find he's full of bruises and bandages he hides. He's been doing something behind our backs. I hate to say it, but I think he's much safer with Ironwood rather than with us."

Ozpin was left without words, if all that Qrow was saying was true...It was like he was neglecting one of his students, one that he should have tried to protect.

"I'll...check, thanks for the information. It's rather refreshing getting something so honest out of you, Qrow."

"Thanks, Ozpin. We both just want to protect him, after all."

The call ended.  _Beep. Beep. Beep._

* * *

On the other side of the call:

Qrow smirked, a dark and smug smirk, as he dropped down the Scroll, he laughed in a suddenly high-pitched voice as its face started to melt like the wax of a candle. Revealing a much more inhuman interior.

On oval head with two rod-like horns on the top of it, its face was featureless except for one deep black hole instead of an eye. The clothes too began to melt, revealing the rest of the inhuman body.

"Hahaha! Oh man, I should win an Oscar!" the being laughed as its true form was revealed, it looked back at a solitary figure leaning against the wall, "Whaddya think, huh?"

The ginger-haired man crossed its arms and looked down, "I'm more surprised at how sticky your fingers are, Wonder. You easily stole a Huntsman's Scroll without him even noticing."

The being he called 'Wonder' floated over to his side, placing his hands on his shoulders, leaning its faceless head against him "Aren't I amazing? You're so lucky having me as your Stand, or else you would be a complete zero, Mister Nice Guy."

The ginger-haired man tried to push it away, "Stop being out in the open and go back to being my Shadow, you're too vulnerable like this."

"Hehe, you worry about your assassins, you worry about Salem, your enemies...And now you even worry about your own Stand, aren't you too weak hearted to be the bad guy, 'The Door Between Worlds'?" the Stand said in a teasing voice

The edges of The Door's mouth twitched in annoyance, "I don't care about being the bad guy or the good guy, I'm just doing what I feel I should be doing, you should know better than anyone., you're part of me"

The figure of the Stand began to drip down into a black substance that dripped on the floor next to him, forming around him and becoming a shadow, giggling all the while.

The Door started walking out of his bedchambers, pulling the orange cape on his back over himself, a serious look on his face.

"We were destined to get to this world, we were destined to be brought in by her when we were all alone in this world, and we were destined to bring The Beast and The Arrow in in this world. Destiny called those four, and they're destined to lose to the Distortion and The Beast." he said to himself, like repeating something he said many times before.

He took a deep breath, "I won't try to fight destiny, as that would go against Salem's wishes. But I must see if  _they_  are strong enough to fight against it."

"Those four Stand Users and those four Huntresses..."

'Wonder' giggled, holding a hand against its face. "Hehe, I guess I'll just have to act out your 'Master Plan', Jack."

[To Be Continued]-->


	47. The Headmaster's Offer

The day was just starting for the group, the girls packed the necessities for class and Josuke was laying on the ground reading a book, as part of his agreement with Team RWBY that he'd study something even if he couldn't come to class.

"Semblance and Auras, huh...So everyone trained can awaken to a special ability unique to them." He said, putting the book down and looking up at the ceiling, "Y'know, not gonna lie...This place does not feel...'real' to me yet." he said with a smile on his face.

"What? Do you think we're fake or something?" Weiss asked while raising an eyebrow, holding her already prepared bag full of books.

He sat up and laughed, "No no, it ain't that. it's just that it's been such a wild ride...And I've met ghosts, insane Stands and other crazy stuff in my world."

"Ghosts? You got to tell me about that when we get back!" Ruby said, now ready go to class.

Josuke laid back down, arms behind his head, "Though I guess I've been fighting some crazy Stand Users here too, so I guess it's not that different from before after all."

Even then, it felt like an arrow hit his heart, he tried to hard to not think of Morioh and the situation there. He felt like a coward that ran away at the last moment from that man. While he enjoyed the company of those girl he just wanted to go back to Morioh and make things right, but how could he do that?

Then, to burst that bubble of thought, the door slowly opened, "You've been fighting what, Mister Josuke?"a friendly voice said, but from how sudden it was it made him jump up.

He looked at the open door, and an unfamiliar man with white hair and bizarre glasses was standing there, a cane in his arms.

"O-Oh, it's just you. You scared me for a second, Professor Ozpin, could you knock next time?." Ruby said.

"I did knock, but I seems you five didn't hear me. My apologies."

"Professor….who…?"

"Oh, right." Blake turned towards him, "I guess you haven't met him yet. He's Professor Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon." she motioned towards Ozpin.

"Oh!" Josuke stood up, looking like he just remember something "Qrow told me of you!" he bowed slightly and rather clumsily, not used to doing greetings like these.

"I'm terribly sorry to intrude, but I just had to check something. Could you take off your shirt for a second?"

.

..

…

"Eh? I'm not doing that." Josuke bluntly stated after a silent moment of confusion.

"Excuse me, professor...But what's exactly so important that you would have to rush over to a student's dorm and order a student to take off his shirt?" Blake asked, stepping up to him.

"It's something Qrow asked me to do." he simply replied.

"Qrow…?" Josuke looked down.

Ozpin smiled a little and raised an open palm, "I'm sorry, I may have been too blunt, can you simply roll up a sleeve?"

Josuke looked at his arm, and silently complied, rolling up his arm. A bandaged wound laid there, still not completely healed up from the fight against Freak.

His eyes looked over, and then back at him, "Have you been getting in some trouble, Mister Josuke?"

Before he could even reply, Yang stepped in front of him, "Well yeah, it's not like the attacks stopped completely after those three went away, it's obvious that would happen."

The Headmaster closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Josuke, Ruby, can you two follow me to a safe place? It seems we have a lot to talk about." his tone or expression didn't show any sign of anger or disappointment, but something more like...understanding.

"Wait, what? Jotaro, Polnareff and Kakyoin got these kinds of wounds all the time! Why is it a problem now?!" Yang asked, in a mixture of surprise and anger.

Ruby ran up to her impulsive sister and placed a hand on her shoulder, "It's fine, sis, I don't think Professor Ozpin wants to punish us.." she said, in an attempt to calm her.

She stepped back and crossed her arms, "Hmph, fine. But I still don't know why it's a problem."

Ruby looked over at Weiss and Blake, "Go to class, we'll catch up to you in just a minute!" she said in her usual cheery tone.

* * *

Ozpin brought them to the hidden room where he 'interrogated' Ruby and ered her the premature admission to Beacon Academy.

They talked to him about the various attacks, The Silver Records and the assassins of The Door, carefully leaving out the pieces of paper, just in case. He listened silently and carefully, not once interrupting them.

When they, or more exactly Ruby, finished talking, he spoke up, leaning back on his chair, "There's still one thing I don't understand..."

"Why didn't you all tell me about this sooner?"

The question unexpectedly hit Ruby like a ton of bricks on the chest, she tried to speak up and explain herself, but the words couldn't come out. The more she thought about it, the more she couldn't explain why they didn't speak to him.

Josuke, seeing Ruby in trouble, spoke up, "We were idiots!" he said, bowing his head down so fast he almost slammed on the table, though his pompadour was definitely touching it.

Ruby, at first confused, quickly mimicked him, bowing down, "Y-Yeah! We're sorry..."

He laughed slightly, under his breath. "I see. You are all young and naive, and you thought you could take on these assassins and this...'cult' all alone, but you all can't do that. The stress of doing something so great will build up, and feel like a...a weight on your back, like something stronger pressing you all to the ground."

Ruby looked down, she couldn't help being ashamed about this, Was she really just playing the heroine , and remained silent.

"But I'm afraid I too failed, in a much greater way than any of you did. As a headmaster I should have protected you all from these threats, letting such dark forces slip past our defences and find a way inside our Beacon of hope...I should also say sorry, from the depths of my heart."

He stood up and turned around, giving them their backs, "But we're powerless against these new powers, it's something never seen before and never studied, how can we defend ourselves from something that we can't even understand?" his voice had a slight tone of sadness and regret.

He turned back around, looking at Josuke, "You said that they didn't seem to be targetting you directly, but rather it was Team RWBY they were focused on, right?"

He looked up, nodding decisively, "They target them first, it seems the only reason they attacked was because I was with them."

"Then you're the only one without any group out for you, which means I...no, we can still fix something, and at least protect you."

"What do you mean by that?" Josuke asked, a curious glint in his eyes.

He sighed, as if giving news he didn't really want to give, "You're going to get sent to the Academy of Atlas, be under the protection of the Headmaster, and become a student there."

"A-Atlas?" he repeated, he read about it, it's an Academy similar to Beacon, but integrated with the government. It was supposedly a very strict military school, where discipline was placed above all else.

In other words, a place really not fit for a free spirit like him!

"I-I never agreed to this! Why are you talking about it like it's already a sure thing?" Josuke shouted, standing up.

Ruby wanted to shout out complaints about it too, but she remained quiet, and only then she realized how much she would miss Josuke if he left, and how much she missed the Jotaro's group. She only met him a little while before, but after those three left...Being without one of them around would feel like something was missing, it was like those four were honorary members of Team RWBY, it was something she herself couldn't explain.

"Unfortunately I have no choice on the matter. I made a promise to Ironwood, the Atlas Headmaster, that if you were in any sort of danger in the two weeks after your arrival he'd bring you to Atlas, and..."

The door suddenly opened.

"Ah!" Ruby's heartbeat spiked up as she turned around. A large man was standing at the door, with the shadow of a beard, black hair with tones of white, and a white, Atlas-made uniform.

"He's already here."

Ironwood smiled, "Pleased to finally meet you, Josuke. And you too, Ruby Rose."

"U-Uh...Pleased to meet you, I guess." Josuke scratched the back of his head, not expecting such a turn of events. "So what now? Are ya going to hold me at gunpoint and give me a free ride to your Academy?"

James stepped closer, laughing a bit, "Of course not, and don't worry, I don't intend to bring you to our prestigious Academy today. In order for you to prepare you're going to stay here for one more week, though of course you'll be unable to leave the school grounds."

Josuke looked at the Atlas Headmaster with distrust in his eyes.

"How does it seem, Josuke?"

Josuke forced on a smile, he felt irritated at this situation, being shipped away in order to be protected when he could safely take care of himself. "A week will be fine, sir."

Ozpin looked over at Ruby, who sulked back down, she looked like a sad puppy abandoned at the street, confused on what to do next. "May I ask a favour? Can you two calmly talk the details out of here? I have something to offer to Miss Rose."

James quietly nodded, and after being sure Josuke nodded as well, stepped out of the room, Josuke regrettably following after him.

_Creeeek. Slam._

The metal door closed.

"So, what did you want to say?" she said quietly.

"You know Miss Rose, the moment I saw you, I knew you were a girl full of talent and passion. Which is why I offered you such early enrolment to Beacon. I think that with enough training, you could turn out a splendid Huntress."

She looked directly at Ozpin, his words seemed to almost...soothe her.

"And now you proved it even more, you and your group found several nefarious groups lurking in the shadows way earlier than we Headmasters could. And despite it all you tried to fight them on your own. That alone deserve credits."

"In short, I want to offer you and your team out-of-class intensive training. Weapon training, sparring, endurance tests. All that usually would be out of league for regular first-years, but I have no doubts a talented Team like yours would have no problems tackling it."

"Why are you offering us this? We're...only a bunch of students."

"Because your Team has much experience fighting Stands and this new threats more than anyone else on Remnant. With enough training, you all could become strong enough to handle these threats, and protect yourselves and others from them."

Ruby smiled a little, the thought of becoming stronger, of her team becoming a group of heroes, that's what she always wanted. That would definitely not make them the strongest Huntresses in the school, but at least strong enough to shoulder the responsibility of fighting such groups, her smile went wider.

"I will speak about this to the others!" She stood up with a cheerful smile, with his words of encouragement and the offer she felt like she could take on the world, Ozpin truly had that effect.

The Headmaster smiled back, "You're dismissed, you can go now."

* * *

_**Meanwhile:** _

Jotaro wandered around the village, the three of them had split up to scout the Village and search for clues regarding Fiore, they were on the brink of giving up, until.

"O-Oh..Please someone help me!" the voice of an old woman rang out. She stood there outside of a house waving some sort of hand-drawn flyer in the air.

"Y-You! Good man, have you seen my husband?" she asked, showing the flyer to him, it showed the old man's name and a hand-drawn picture of him, "I haven't seen him for days!"

"Days...exactly for how much?" Jotaro asked.

"A-About after you and the other two walked out of the bunker all covered in blood..."

_Damn, that job sure spread around quickly._

Jotaro grabbed the flyer, "Do you have any clues on where he could have ended up?"

"I-I don't have any proofs...But I fear he has been kidnapped. By the Silver Shadows!"

Those two words piqued his interest, but before he could ask what those were, the old woman was already explaining.

"The Silver Shadows are an urban legend that passed by from village to village these last few weeks, they say they're monsters that appear in the houses of random people and kidnap them, and they're never to be seen!"

That was definitely were some sort of lead, and he listened attentively and made sure to make a mental note of it.

"Some say they grab weak people from their beds, some say they seduce the victims away, but nobody is sure what they are or how they do it, but hundreds of people all across Vale have gone missing, and I'm sure it's because of them!"

[To Be Continued]-->


	48. Cacophony

As the morning sun blazed and shined over the village the three Stand Users kept investigating. They investigated for three full hours in different places, sometimes coincidentally running up with each others. Kakyoin also tried to go back to the bunker, but it was completely locked off and the secret exit was only that, an exit.

Jotaro however acted a bit differently, he interrogated various village folk about the so-called 'Silver Shadows' prowling in the outskirts of Vale, and while at first it was rather awkward for him he picked up the pace and managed to collect some useful information.

According to some, there were four Silver Shadows, two always appeared in pairs and seemed covered in darkness, they sneaked in houses and kidnapped people, mostly old people and children that couldn't fight back.

One of them was described to be 'large and muscular, with an unnatural aura around it", according to witnesses it convinced people to let him in their houses, and then they would disappear, only to be found later without a hint of blood in their bodies or around them.

The fourth was much more mysterious, the only way people described it was that it had a round, smooth head and always his in the shadows. It would seemingly point a gun at defenseless people and force them to come with him.

This all just confirmed it for Jotaro, all these 'Silver Shadows' were connected to him and his group in some way, and for the first time since his arrival he got a clue, even if vague, about the presence of Dio being around Vale.

He kept most of this information for himself, for the time being, he couldn't know what ears would have listened in if he talked to the others about this. However, he came across a piece of vital information he couldn't not talk about...

A destroyed house, far away from the village and the fields. A lonely hut in the middle of nowhere. Smoke was still rising from the ruins. It reminded Jotaro of something...of their destroyed hideout.

But most important of all, two figures were standing on top of the destroyed roof: one thin and curvy, the other large and round. Both seemed covered in shadows. They were both facing away from him, and they were carrying two figures under their arms, like bodies that were slumped over.

Jotaro's eyes widened, but he remained still, from the form of them they looked like they were carrying an old man and a young kid, and they didn't seem to have noticed him. And then, they jumped down, and started running north.

And just like that, they were out of his sight. If they were the Hunters of the Silver Records he couldn't possibly handle them alone. He had to call backup.

* * *

"Phew, is it me, or is it getting even hotter around here?" Polnareff leaned against the broken down wall.

"Can you stop complaining about the damn heat and help us out already?" Jotaro asked as Star Platinum pushed away some wreck, trying to look for some clue about whoever lived here and what happened.

"Hey! Look at what I found here!" Kakyoin shouted from outside, and then he promptly walked in the wreck. He was holding something long and thin in his hand, something like a piece of blackened out bark, it was difficult to describe.

"There's more of them outside, they lead up north."

"Where the two must have gone...But up north we go outside the village border! I'm not going in a place crawling with Grimm, I got enough of 'em for a lifetime!"

Kakyoin ignored the Frenchman's whining, and looked over at Jotaro...Except that Jotaro was already walking ahead, having made up his mind.

In about thirty minutes they were already out of the border and out of the protective walls of the city. But before they did, a guard told them this, "I would reconsider going there if I were you. The jungle down there is...strange."

"Whaddya mean?" Polnareff asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"It's...corrupted, for a while strong Grimm seem to emerge out of it, and the vegetation's been lifeless, you'll see what I mean when you get there."

And, well, he wasn't kidding.

The whole jungle, as far as the eye could see, was purple and black. The trees seemed twisted and gave off an evil aura, even the grass they stepped on looked like small purple blades ready to cut open the soles of the three Stand Users.

"Oh my God...This whole place gives me the damn creeps." Polnareff shivered, dodging out of the way of a tree he could swear just moved.

"It's like this forest has eyes...And it just keeps going as far as the eye can see. What a wretched place." Kakyoin placed a hand in front of his mouth in order not to barf, the jungle was hot and had a nauseous stench that filled the nostrils of the three.

Jotaro, in the middle of Polnareff and Kakyoin, looked around, if truly powerful Grimms were living there, they doubtlessly would have tried to atta-

A figure leaped from the darkness of the tall trees, letting a scream similar to the one of a jaguar. It smashed its jet-black front paws against Jotaro's side, pushing him to the ground and making him eat the dirt before he could even realize what was happening. It jumped away slightly and raised its front paws to maul the grounded JoJo, who instinctively raised his hands upwards.

"Hierophant Green!" Kakyoin didn't waste a second, and Hierophant shot out an Emerald Cannon at the panther like Grimm.

The Grimm turned around , staring at the crystal clear projectile with its four yellow eyes. They couldn't see the Stand or the projectile, but they could, in some way, sense its presence. It jumped upwards and completely dodged by jumping back.

"Star Finger!" Jotaro shouted, using one of his Stand's secret talents, Star Platinum quickly appeared in front of him and pointed two finger as the jaguar-grimm was about to dodge, and the fingers quickly extended unnaturally, and pierced the underbelly of the monster.

Black blood spilled and the creature whined, jumped back and ran away, into the shadows of the trees.

"W-Wow! It escaped before I could even do anything!" Polnareff exclaimed.

"It didn't escape..." Jotaro stated as he stood up and scrolled off the purple moss on his clothes. "It's stalking us, waiting for the right moment to strike. If I learned one thing is that those things don't give up easily."

"So what do we do?" Kakyoin asked.

"Do what we must do and get the hell out of here."

* * *

Three hours later, they were still in the forest. After a few quick anti-climactic battles with weak Grimm and a few more skirmishes with that persistent jaguar Grimm along the way, something around the jungle began changing, it started becoming clearere, less trees cluttered their view.

Polnareff panted completely exhausted, wiping away the blood from his cheek, "H-Hah...hah...Where is Team RWBY when you need 'em? Those girls have way much more stamina than us, damn I miss 'em.."

"H-Hey, am I hallucinatin' or is that..?" He pointed forward, in a clearing of the trees.

A tower covered in purple moss, giving it an unnatural and evil hue. It looked like an old lookout tower, where guards would stand there looking at enemy and Grimm movements, now abandoned and left in ruin.

"I think we found their hideout. Let's not rush this, there may be traps laid down for people that wander around." Jotaro said, half-hiding against a tree.

"I agree, it seems too clear." Kakyoin replied, looking at the tower with suspicion.

Polnareff got a bit closer, "Well, I see only one entrance and no windows, what do you all suggest? Smash our way inside?"

"It's more likely the whole place would crumble down and we'd kill the kidnapped, if they're there. And we can't risk that."

"If you say so, JoJo."

"Front entrance it is."

It didn't take much for the situation to get...Sticky.

As soon as they walked out of the jungle and into the clearing around the tower, Jotaro Kakyoin stepped on...something.

_Click, kikikikikikiKI_

"Look out!" Polnareff grabbed them by the shoulders and pulled him back, getting onto the ground, making them fall on their backs. And he quickly covered his ears as he planted his face on the ground.

_**BOOM.** _

Two large explosions expanded in front of them, two large balls of fire that nearly burned them to a crisp. Then, they it was over, and all of them could hear

"Don't tell me...A minefield?!" Jotaro shouted in surprise, his ears ringing. Even he couldn't imagine they would fill up the ground with landmines as a safety measure.

Polnareff stood up and looked pretty panicked, "I'm not risking an arm and my legs going through there, nope, I'm not doing it!"

"Would you prefer staying here, where Grim could easily chew or cut off your leg instead of blowing it up." Kakyoin tried to dissuade him, but Polnareff stepped back.

"I don't care, no chance in hell I'm going there, I wish you two luck, I prefer guarding around here."

"Leave him be." Jotaro looked over at Kakyoin, that was trying to formulate some other way to convince Polnareff. He took a step closer to the minefield, hidden in the corrupted earth. "We need to figure out how to get through this."

Kakyoin nodded and signed at Jotaro to step back, he quickly shot an Emerald Splash at the ground, and the bullets didn't seem to trigger anything.

He shot again, this time in a spot next to it, and an explosion was set off. He shot a bit behind, three ear-piercing booms were set off.

"This makes it more difficult. It seems they just placed the traps randomly, without any sort of pattern..."

"So how're you both going to deal with it?" asked Polnareff from the metaphorical sidelines. His back turned to the others.

Kakyoin turned back and frowned at his companion. "You said you'd rather guard the area? Then do it."

Jotaro kneeled down, trying to look at any abnormalities in the grass, but there was no bump or anything, they hid them well. He growled under his breath in frustration, "They're just making us waste our time."

Then, silence. Nothing except the rustling of the twisted and corrupted trees."

Then, a shout: "Silver Chariot!"

Jotaro and Kakyoin turned around, it was the jaguar Grimm! It leaped inside the clearing, snarling and still bleeding from the wounds the Stand Users inflicted it, and then at Polnareff. But this time he was prepared. The Stand's sword impaled it from side to side, skewering it on the rapier's length.

"Aaaaah!" Polnareff screamed out, mustering enough strength to pull up the big Grimm with the sword and fling it across the clearing, with enough power that it surprised everyone.

The Grimm landed in the middle of the minefield.

Several landmines went off, and the Grimm was blasted upwards, enveloped in a gigantic ball of fire, several more were set off, in some sort of domino reaction that set off a mines all across the perimeter of the tower, letting out such a booming, loud sound that it could've been heard all the way back to the village.

"G-GGH, MAKE IT STOP!" Jotaro screamed, going to his knees as he covered his ears.

"W-WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Kakyoin shouted back, the boom covering the voice of both.

"THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! HOW THE HELL CAN THE OTHER LANDMINES SET OFF THE OTHERS? UNLESS...IT WAS MADE EXPLICITLY TO DO THAT!" Polnareff deduced in a very loud voice.

"WHAT?" The other two replied in unison.

* * *

Fiore sat on top of a mossy chair, idly reading a book, and then the tower started shaking and the sounds of explosion could be heard coming from outside, a cacophony of ear-piercing sounds, it was like a war outside the tower.

Yet, she didn't bat an eyelid, and simply flipped the page. "Brick, the alarm has gone off."

Brick, that was sitting on the floor, slowly stood up, "Thanks, sister. I can hear that."

"Go check if the intruders died. I cannot be bothered." She placed one leg over the other, flipping another page.

He silently walked away and up the spiral staircase, to the top of the tower, grabbing hold of his axe.

And as he went to the roof, he looked at the ground below. The small explosions, chained together, created sounds that sounded like an harmony to him, and an earthquake to anyone nearby. He closed his eyes and looked up, and pointed the axe upwards, taking a deep breath.

But that smile turned quickly into a frown, as the explosions stopped. "I don't smell human blood."

He looked back down again, and he widened his eyes. They seemed dots, but as the dust of the explosions settled, three very familiar figures were laying on the ground, coughing and covering their ears, and then slowly standing up.

He gritted his teeth, but then grinned. "Hehe, finally. I can't wait to go against that boy again." His eyes were bloodshot, his heart started beating faster and a sense of unnatural adrenaline started to pump in his bloodstream.

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I do think I could have expanded this chapter more, but there's only so much I can do in just one week.


	49. Tower Raid

Jotaro gasped and coughed out the dust that flew right into his lungs, helping Polnareff up. "It's stopped..."

The Frenchman slowly uncovered his ears, "D-Did I go deaf? Oh, oh no, oh no no no no! I can't hear my own voice! I went deaf!"

The ringing slowly subsided, being slowly replaced by a crippling headache. But at least Polnareff took a sigh of relief that he didn't lose his hearing. Kakyoin slowly stood up and touched the side of his face, near the ear. Blood was dripping down. "This is great, now my ears are bleeding.."

Jotaro looked up at the top of the tower, and his eyes met with that of another, and a chill went up his spine. He couldn't identify it before it went out of his line of vision. But it gave off an...aura, an aura of malice and hatred.

The surroundings of the tower turned into a badly made trench from the multiple explosions. Polnareff slowly walked over and leaned down, "Woah, I don't think there's anything left of that Grimm..."

Jotaro silently stepped away, and started running at full speed towards the trench, jumping just a second before he'd have fallen down into the large crevice. He landed safely on the burned grass on the other side, dusting off his clothes.

They both decided to imitate him, and both had to be helped up by Star Platinum due to miscalculations in the jumps.

The forest was growing uneasy, there was rustling anywhere there was foliage, and slowly Grimm started to pop out of the shadow of the trees. "I don't like this one bit...Let's get moving before we get overrun, the craters done by the explosion at leasts should slow them down." Kakyoin stated, running towards the old, broken down iron door of the lookout tower, pushing it open.

The slow rustling and growls and hisses of the Grimms were quickly replaced by a loud clanging noise coming from beneath the floor, like someone banging their fist against iron. A spiral stair laid at the center of the room, one going up, and going going down, specifically underground.

"Polnareff, Kakyoin, you two go in the floor below and check out what the noise is, I'm going to go upstairs and see if anyone's there. If you hear loud noises coming from above, rush to me immediately." Jotaro explained his plan to his companions. Already walking towards the stairs without waiting for their consent.

Kakyoin looked at Polnareff and he shrugged, and they both rushed down the stairs and into the underground of the tower.

It was narrow and smelly, as expected of a place like that, but at the very least it didn't take long for the two to find what they were searching for.

A cell with two clearly distressed persons, an old man and a little boy, the boy had tears in his eyes and the old man was shaking the bars of the cell. The cell was littered with corpses that looked surprisingly fresh, only a week old at the oldest.

"A-Ah! Grandpa! Look over there!" The boy pointed at the two, cleaning the tears near his eyes with his hand.

"Don't worry! We'll bust you out in just a second!" Silver Chariot appeared in front of Polnareff, dropping the sword and grabbing the cell with both hands, as expected the hostages fell back in surprise.

Kakyoin joined in with his Hierophant, and though the physical strength of their Stand was rather average, with the strength of both they managed to pull the rusted cell door off its hinges.

"O-Oh, thank you!" the old man said, slowly walking out, but Kakyoin pushed his hand out in front of him to stop him.

"We're surrounded by monsters, you do not want to get out right now, stay here while we take care of business." he turned around, intending to leave.

The boy remained wide-eyed, "M-Monsters?"

"Trust us, we'll tell you when you both should get out, just wait he-"

_**CRASH.** _

The sudden noise came from the floors above, and the boy quickly cowered behind his grandpa.

"We gotta bounce, see ya." Polnareff gave the two a peace sign as he quickly rushed up the stairs, so he quickly he almost tripped and fell on top of Kakyoin, that was trying to follow.

"Be careful, you have been a menace these last few days."  _and to be honest, in all of our journeys_. Kakyoin wanted to say, but kept it in.

Polnareff remained silent as he ran up to the first floor, and looked sternly at the iron door.

_**Bang. Bang. Bang. Graauugh.** _

"Damn it, they're already here." he muttered, looking over at Kakyoin, "This isn't where the crash came from. Go help out Jotaro, I'll stay here." he said, a serious look on his face.

"Are you serious? I thought you said you were sick of Grimms. Where did the sudden courage come from?"

"It may not look like it, but I got honor, damn it! And I will protect those two innocent bystanders, even if I have to fight yet another horde, with nothing but my Stand!" as he proclaimed that, Silver Chariot appeared in front of him, sword clutched at its chest.

Kakyoin was surprised at his words, but silently nodded, turning around and running up the stairs.

Polnareff turned towards the door, and slammed it open, running out while striking a near Beowolf in the eye, "Come at me!"

[LineNeeded]

It all happened so fast. As soon as he got to the third floor Jotaro felt like he was being grabbed, and then thrown like a baseball. His back slammed against the wall, and he slowly opened his eyes. His attacker's body was large, but it was covered in what seemed pure liquid darkness that leaked to the floor and solidified, into the same bark-like pieces that led them there in the first place.

The shroud of darkness dissapeared, and the hooded, armored hunger appeared fully, grinning while holding his axe with one hand. "Sorry to lend you an ambush like this, but we don't exactly know the meaning of 'fair battle'"

Jotaro slowly stood up, blood dripping from the sides of his mouth and a few bruises covering his face, "Hey, what's your name?"

He tilted his head, slowly approaching, "Hmm? If you really want to know, it's Brick."

"Brick, huh...I'll make sure to remember that...As I'll be the one to write on your grave!" he stood still, and Star Platinum lunged with a closed fist towards him.

"Heh, was that the best one-liner you could come up with?!" he said smugly, he held the small axe with both hands, and pulled it in opposite ways, it quickly extended by over a meter, and he blocked the punch with the side of the blade.

_Damn, what is that axe made of?_ Jotaro asked himself, a flurry of his fists could have destroyed diamonds, but yet a single hard punch couldn't even scratch that blade.

Brick stepped back and slashed forward, but Star jumped back and let down a quick quick at its face, hitting the side of his hood, but even that didn't seem to bother it much, only making a scratch at his Aura.

He rolled back, for being large he was really agile, and in terms of speed he and Star .Platinum were equal. He looked around, "I don't like these confined spaces, how about we do this in somewhere more open?" he said, looking up.

Before Jotaro could answer, he was already gone, in a simple second he transported away. He gritted his teeth, and started to run up the stairs before he himself realized it.

And just as he walked up, Kakyoin walked in the room, he looked around, missing Jotaro by a second, "Jotaro? Where are y-"

He felt something coming from up, on the small ceiling of the third floor, something that seemed to go down towards him. In the span of a moment Fiore plummeted towards him, kicking him in the head and landing on her feet in front of him, holding her fancy cane.

"Oh my, with your hatted friend fighting my partner, and you fighting me...It is just like the first time we met." she smiled, leaning over her cane.

Kakyoin stumbled back, disoriented, "Emerald Splash!" Hierophant circled around her, and shot several small bullets.

Fiore twirled her cane around, easily shattering the projectiles, "Aww, what a shame, I get all the easy work."

He shook his head, and looked around, in a heads-on fight he could never possibly win against her, and the only thing that was in that room was a chair and a half-broken shelf full of dusty books...In his mind, an idea started to form.

"Was that kick all you've got?" Kakyoin taunted, trying to get her to attack him, and yet, she stared at him, smiling.

"What are you doing? Hit me."

"Oh, I am just admiring your pretty face, and am currently reading you like a book." She looked down, and quickly stabbed the tail of Hierophant wrapped around her ankle with the tip of the cane, "I'm not so easily tricked, you know."

He reeled back, his leg bleeding, "Guess you haven't had enough of broken legs." she teased.

He took several deep breaths, time for Plan B. He slowly stood up and walked backwards, towards the center of the spiral staircase...And suddenly fell, down into a free fall in imminent collision with the ground floor. Even Fiore was surprised. "What the-Ugh!" she felt something hitting her back and pushing her forward, she turned around…

It was the chair that seemed wrapped up in Hierophant's tail. He planned to bring her down with him!

She grinned, not like such a fall could hurt her in any possible way, she allowed herself to fall…

Kakyoin forced his eyes open, though his instincts wanted him to close them. Hierophant Green wrapped its arms around its user and turned around abruptly to stop his descent, and he fall flat on his back on the second floor.

A shock of adrenaline ran through him, and he stood up like nothing happened, his Stand pushed its arms upwards, towards the circular hole in the ceiling, any second now…

The outline of a woman fell down from above, "Emerald Cannon!"

The large emerald-like projectile soared upwards, and Fiore was hit deadeye, she flew and flipped back, smashing through the wall with such force to completely break it, letting the sun's rays inside the tower.

He fell to his knees, not seeing Fiore anymore. "Did that do it?" he asked himself, waiting a few seconds and staring at the hole…

Nothing, except the growling and screams of the Grimms below. He took a deep breath and started running up the stairs, slightly limping.  _This is fine, it's nothing compared to what she did to me before._

* * *

Jotaro jumped back, but not so far he'd fall off the circular roof of the tower, bleeding from his side, he didn't want to admit it, but he couldn't help but be impressed that a non-Stand user could match him in a direct fight.

"How fun! You make for an interesting prey!" He Transported to the side of Jotaro in the blink of an eye, and tried to chop his head off. "But this ends now!"

He ducked and swooped him off his feet, and the quickly summoned Star punched the wicked hunter in the head, sending pieces of the roof flying. He Transported back, his Aura finally faltering, but he still wouldn't take off that stupid grin off his face.

"You're one though son of a bitch, but how many direct punches can you tank? Five? Six at best?" Jotaro placed a hand on his knee as he stood up.

Brick held his enlarged axe with one hand, extending his other arm towards the Stand user, "Why don't you come and find out…?"

It was as if time suddenly stood still, neither of them moved or said anything, they stared at each other, the tension in the air was electrical.

After a silent moment, Brick took a simple step forward, "I imagine you already know about the 'Guardians', right?"

"Guardians? You mean the Grimms controlled by insane people like you?"

"Hehe, more or less. I'll let you know, I'm about to have a Guardian too...And it's currently in the process of being birthed, under the ground of that village."

Jotaro's eyes widened, "Uh? What?! What does that mean?!"

He laughed yet again, "Since I've arrived here, I've laid the Seed of the Guardian in the soil of the village. Along with some meditation on my part, it absorbed the rays of the sun hitting the village, using it to grow, and grow, and grow, to gigantic proportions spanning the entire village!"

That revelation suddenly clicked the pieces of the scattered puzzle in Jotaro's mind, that's why the village was so abnormally hot!

"Jotaro Kujo, if you don't kill me today, my soon-to-be Guardian Hecaton will rise from the ground and destroy the village, and no-one shall be spared in that delicious sacrifice!"

[To Be Continued]-->

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authore Notes:
> 
> 1\. Sorry that I've been focusing quite a lot on the Stand users lately in this fic, I'll attempt to give the RWBY girls the same amount of focus in later chapters.
> 
> 2\. 'Hecaton' is a shortened version of Hecatoncheires, giants with one hundred hands and fifty heads from Greek mythology.


	50. The Human Hunters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I reached 50 chapters for this fanfiction, that's more chapters than in the average book! It's been fun though, and I never would imagined that even one person would bother reading my stuff. And I never missed a week in publishing yet, which is pretty amazing, considering I never published a fanfiction before! Guess consistency pays off, huh? Well, enough blabber, let's get to the chapter.

A feminine figure stood up from the rubble on the ground, stumbling a little as she recovered her balance. "Ugh, dam...darn it." Fiore slowly muttered, the fall didn't particularly hurt her, but her Aura was down, and it would take a while for it to recharge.

She used her cane as a way to help herself up, and coughed, that Stand user truly outsmarted her, she couldn't have imagined he'd risk so much for such an attack, she felt anger welling up inside her. Suddenly, she heard the sound of battle near here, the Grimm she called forth were fighting against the silver-haired Stand user.

She smirked, standing up straight and elegantly. Very well then, she'd just would have had to take revenge on one of his buddies.

* * *

Polnareff sliced and diced his way through the horde, trying to stand his ground in front of the entrance of the lookout tower. A Grimm bigger than the other, a King Taijitu, rushed towards him leaned down, trying to bite him.

"Oh fuck off!" he shouted in anger, dodging sideways, but not fast enough as the twin-headed serpent bit his Stand on the shoulder, and while the armor protected him, the sheer force made his shoulder bleed.

Silver Chariot punctured the Grimm on one of its chin, creating several small holes, it hissed and retched back.

"Oh no no, you're not getting away from here!" he shouted, pushing a small crawling Grimm away from him with a kick in the face.

Silver Chariot started spinning its sword around, quickly becoming a blurry circle. And then, it began rotating on one leg towards the dancer, like an armored ballerina.

Not before long, it became a small cyclone, and the poor snake Grimm was sliced to pieces in mere seconds, both of its heads detached from its body. Silver Chariot pulled back to its user, and kept throwing attacks at the smaller Grimm.

"Yeah! I knew watching Weiss and the others training was worth it!" Stealing other's fighting styles? Ah, who cared as long as it saved his hide!

Sweat was dripping down from him like a waterfall, it was the underground bunker all over again. Suddenly, a much more human figure dashed through his field of vision, mixing with the Grimm, he blinked as he gouged the eye out of an Ursa, was that a trick of the light, or-

Suddenly, the horde of Grimm around him suddenly backed away from him, and the figure jumped into view right in front of him, it was that woman… "Care for a dance?" she smirked smugly, pointing the pointed cane at him.

Silver Chariot pointed its sword towards her, mimicking her movement "Gladly." Polnareff stated.

She lunged forward, and immediately the Grimm howled and screamed, lunging towards him at the same time. He jumped back in surprise and near the closed door of the tower, out of the swipes and bites of the Grimm.

She kept running and as soon as Silver Chariot tried to parry the cane, the weapon suddenly transformed.

The cane segmented into small pieces held together by a long chain, turning twice as long as in its regular form, the edged tip hanging at the end of the chain like the tip of a scorpion's tail.

"What the he-Ow!" the chain slashed him in the chest, quickly, wildly and unpredictably, creating small cuts but visible cuts in his chest. A wild, fiery look burned in her eyes.

* * *

The reveal startled him, that he couldn't hide, but he suddenly smiled despite his injuries, "Oh, so I just have to kill you? Funny, I was planning to do just that." he bluffed, he never tried to use lethal force with humans unless it was necessary, and this situation was quickly shaping up to be one of those situations.

He grinned, his hood pulled up and obscuring his eyes, "Good."

He rushed towards him and dissapeared again in a small flash of light, Transporting behind Jotaro, he instinctively turned halfway around and held his arm up, and his Stand mimicked him, taking the blunt of the attack.

Jotaro gritted his teeth as the axe sunk in his Stand's flesh, before elbowing the Silver Record's Hunter in the face with enough force to shatter a rock, but even though his Aura shield was down he only managed to push him back a little. Thanks to Star Platinum's natural durability the hit was 'only' deep enough to almost reach his bone, rather than cutting it in half like it would have happened if it hit Jotaro's arm.

The situation was bad, real bad. Brick was too fast even for Jotaro. No, it wasn't that he was  _fast_ , it was more like he was abusing that strange ability all Silver Records member had, to transport from one point to another in no time at all, no matter how fast he was, he couldn't match up to that.

Brick suddenly turned around towards the floor, and transported away, near the stairs that went down and down, "I hear footsteps, I won't let anyone get in the way of our fight!" he raised his axe up and smashed the highest step, creating something akin to an earthquake.

And just like that, the spiral staircase began to turn into dust, like a cracker.

**Meanwhile:**

_What's that sound?_ Kakyoin asked himself as he quickly went up the stairs, well, as quickly as he could. The more he went up, the louder the rumbling noise became.

His eyes widened, and his entire body froze at the sight of the steps in front of him crumbling for seemingly no reason, and those steps were quickly reaching him, if he didn't do something, he would have fallen again, and this time he wasn't sure if he could survive it.

He had no choice, he turned around and started running away as the stairs began to quickly crumble under his feet. "D-Damn it…!" he shouted after almost tripping and smashing his head against the ground, he had to find another way to get to the roof!

Jotaro didn't lose this opportunity for an attack, he run forward to extend his Stand's range, and Star Platinum sent a flying kick towards Brick, so fast it broke the sound barrier, "OOORAAA!". As the kick connected with his chest, and for the first time it seemed like the attack affected him, he flew backwards and spun in the air several time before falling back on the ground and on his back with a heavy impact.

Even through the midst of battle, Jotaro heard something, a glass-like object falling on the ground, a second later Jotaro noticed that said object fell at his feet.

A silver circular object, it reminded him of something...but no matter how much he tried to dig in his memory for something similar, he couldn't find anything.

He picked it up while keeping an eye on the unmoving Brick, and walked over to him, "Hey, what the hell is this?" he said, holding up the circular object. The Hunter, laying face down, didn't respond.

"Hey, bastard, I asked you a question." Jotaro stated, placing a foot on his back, but the sound it made and the feeling, it felt...hollow.

_Swish_. He felt a sudden burst of wind hitting his side, and he instinctively turned around, and he couldn't believe his eyes.

Brick, grinning like a madman and without any clothes on, holding the silver object he snatched away in his hand before Transporting in an instant, his brain couldn't even process what he just saw before he felt something hitting the back of his head, making him stumble forward, his head bleeding slightly.

Brick, back inside his armor, hit him with the handle of the enlarged axe. Grinning and stepping back, "I think I underestimated your intelligence if such a simple trick got the best of you. I could have sliced your head off right then and there, but where would have been the fun in that?"

JoJo gritted his teeth in anger, but then, that expression of anger turned into a smirk, "Is that why you have such a huge axe? It's because you're compensating for something?"

"Ah! Funny, didn't think you were the joking type."

"Joking? Oh, I'm not joking. In fact, I'm really pissed off right now. You're one of the most disgusting persons I've ever met, and I've met plenty of filth." He pointed an accusatory finger at the Hunter, still smirking.

"You kidnapped and sacrificed innocent people, you probably even corrupted this forest, and now you're threatening to destroy an entire village, and who knows what else you've done in your life..."

"Let's just say that right now I have an intense need to bash your skull in. You're going to regret not killing me when you had the chance." An aura was starting to build up around him, and Star Platinum's hair started to slowly point upwards, muscles bulging out the more Jotaro got angry.

Brick held up the silver object, "Yes, yes! You're the best sacrifice I've ever had to make!" he laughed, "But just to make things even better...Let me show you what will happen should you fail."

He let go of the object, and it slowly began spinning in mid air, before letting out a bright light.

Star Platinum tried to rush in and throw a punch at the thing, but it was too late. The entire roof of the tower was covered in light.

* * *

Fiore held the Grimm back, having seemingly complete control over them, wanting to fight the Frenchman herself.

"Is this all you can do? You're pathetic!" she shouted as Silver Chariot parried her cane's thrust, his Stand's armor was battered and she was barely bruised.

Polnareff was now a sweating and bleeding mess, the form of his Stand was flickering and almost ghost-like, he couldn't muster the strength of keeping his Stand out, and once it would be gone he would be completely defenceless.

The Grimm looked and seemed to almost giggle at hissuffering and lick their lips, if they had them, almost waiting to feast on his body. Fiore smiled as she jumped over the Stand and planted his cane on the ground, holding onto it with both hand as she started spinning around quickly while on top of it. She was breakdancing on the cane!

"What kinda fighting style is-AH!" She planted two kicks on his head while spinning around, before landing on the ground with a spin and gracefully took the cane out of the ground, beating the gem-encrusted head in Polnareff's face.

Polnareff held onto his nose as he fell on his knees, nearly crying.  _Strong...Too..Damn...Strong…_

His Stand dissapeared, flickering like static noise fading into nothingness, and the Grimm slowly encircled him as she looked down at him, no pity in her eyes.

"Look at you, you really expected to fight off a horde and someone like me at the same time? You can't even use that ridiculous 'Stand' any more. At least I can take my revenge for one of you ruining my make-up." She laughed, placing the back of her hand against her mouth as she pointed the cane towards his head.

He looked up, bleeding profusely from his mouth, "Can't...use it any more?" he placed his hands on the purple grassy ground, breathing heavily, "I wouldn't think so."

After that she saw a glint coming from Polnareff's chest, "Wh-Ah…."

The rapier stabbed through her stomach, ending on the other side of her lithe body, the tip coated in blood. Her eyes became vacant as she stepped back, stumbling as she struggled to stay on her feet, nearly dropping her pointed cane. "Y-You...what?"

Silver Chariot's ghostly arm extended from Polnareff's chest, pulling back the rapier and dissipating, "B-By...Haah...Summoning only the arm...I spent less mental focus..." The heavily wounded Polnareff breathed heavily, having lost all strengths.

She clutched her stomach, she didn't even realize that a single stab like that could turn the tide around that quickly. "Damn...it...Fuck you...and your buddies too! This isn't over, mark my words!" she suddenly swore out loud, unable to contain her anger.

Suddenly, something black swooped from above, a giant raven-like Grimm wrapped its wings around Fiore, covering her entire body, Polnareff could only see a deadly red glint of her eyes between the feathers.

Suddenly, the Grimm took off, and with it the Hunter. The Grimm around suddenly rushed in towards Polnareff, with the very clear intent of eating him alive.

He closed his eyes and smiled, he felt like he was going to pass out at any second, maybe it would have been a painless death after all.

But before they could touch him, a shot came from above. Small crystals pierced several of the monsters, and other fell down to the ground.

The Grimm looked up, and so did Polnareff.

Kakyoin was sitting at the side of the tower, his chest wrapped around Hierophant's tail, that was also wrapped around the tower itself like an extremely long rope, "Come and get me instead!"

_T-That crazy idiot...He's using his Stand to climb on top of the tower!_

The beasts, apparently seeing him as a much more desirable treat, didn't hesitate in leaving Polnareff alone and rushing towards the red-haired Stand user.

A Griffin, a Grimm with a horse-like body, wings, and a sharp beak, swooped towards Kakyoin, and was met by an Emerald Cannon to a wing, blowing a hole clean through it. The attack didn't kill it, instead making the flying grimm plummet to the ground while it gave off a bone-chilling screech.

Kakyoin started to climb upwards, his expression showed that he wasn't having an easy time doing so, especially with the threat of the Grimm coming from above and below.

Jean Pierre Polnareff slowly stood up, bleeding from everywhere. He just wanted to pass out and sleep, and maybe never wake up, but that show of courage and guts from his younger companion repressed that desire. "I...can't die...here!"

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1.If it wasn't obvious already, the Silver Records Hunters are heavily inspired from Bloodborne, and both the axe and the cane come from that game.


	51. Burying The Axe

As the light dissipated and darkness started to seep in, he remembered. Jotaro remembered of those dark forests, of the strange wounds in his body, of the large silver circles turning red with his blood as he felt held down by invisible cinder blocks. He remembered it all.

"Do not fear yet, Jotaro Kujo." A voice said from the darkness, laughing heartily. Brick's large body took form in front of him, face completely covered under his hood, though he already could imagine his shit-eating grin.

"This is only a  **distortion** , a sort of pocket dimension created by the replica of the Silver Records. But a replica can never match the original, and such it does not allow us to interact with the distortion, we're only...spectators.

Jotaro tried to move and throw a punch right in his gut, but he couldn't move an inch, just like in his 'dreams'.

Slowly, the world around him started to take a vague form. Small houses, just like the ones in the village. Suddenly the scent of blood filled Jotaro's nostrils.

He blinked, and in the next moment.

Death. Dead bodies everywhere, some missing their heads, some torn in half, some mangled to the point they didn't even look human, splattered onto the ground or on a half-destroyed house like a gigantic stain.

The Stand user's heart started beating wildly at the sight and his eyes shot open as he slowly looked up to the source of the madness.

A gigantic humanoid being, its body was black and covered in the white-and-red bone-like armor. It towered over everyone and everything, looking around everywhere with hundreds of yellow eyes. Dozens upon dozens of arms sprouted from its chest, back, shoulders, some of them holding flailing humans and ripping them apart or throwing them into the hungry maw of the Grimm, its mouth full of mashed up corpses.

The gigantic creature looked like he it dug its way up from the underground, if the gigantic hole in the middle of the distorted village was of any indication. It slowly freed itself of the hole, and started stepping out. He created that carnage without even getting out of its 'womb'.

_**RAAAAAUUUUUUGGH** _

Jotaro's instincts of preservation kicked in, he wanted, no, he  _needed_  to get the hell away from that thing. His body started to violently shake as he desperately tried to fight against the distortion forcing him to stay still, to no avail.

"That...is Hecaton, my future Guardian Grimm." He laughed wickedly as he looked at it, "Isn't he beautiful? It's everything I've ever desired for in my life, and more!"

Hecaton stomped around, crushing houses in its way, at first it seemed like it was going to crush Jotaro under his feet, but it phased through him, like he was some sort of hologram.

"The  **distortion** of the Replica allowed us to see a sneak peek at the future." Brick explained, "So...this is what will happen if you fail. Not only you and your group will die, but also everyone in this pathetic kingdom!"

"Your little pet monster over there may be the size of Godzilla, but how can you be so confident that you'll be able to take on the entirety of the kingdom?" Jotaro asked, trying to keep his cool.

"Hehehe...You know that Grimm grow stronger the older they get, right?" Brick asked, his wicked, blood-thirsty grin showing. "With Guardian Grimms it's different. The more carnage and bloodshed they create, the more they get stronger, the more they evolve, eventually turning into an unstoppable killing machine."

His hood fell down, his hair was oily and unkept and his eyes glinted with evil desire, " _That's_ why I'm so confident."

And just as it came, the  **distortion**  faded.

* * *

Blink

As soon as Jotaro felt his muscles free themselves and his vision returning to the surroundings of the tower, took a jump back and locked eyes with Brick, standing at the opposite site of the tower. Jotaro's eyes were twitching, nearly pulsing with pure silent anger.

Star Platinum's body formed in front of him, looking equally pissed off as its user.

_Swosh_

Jotaro darted forward towards him, throwing a punch his way. He placed his axe in front of him. He tried to jump up and dodge the hit, but Jotaro's fury was too intense, the punch had the speed and intensity of a rocket hitting Brick right in the breastplate.

"Ugh!" he flew back, but after a backflip he was already back on his feet, he Transported in a flash, first right in front of Jotaro and then out of his field of vision.

_Clink_

Star Platinum immediately shielded Jotaro's backside as soon as he heard the sound, Brick's shortened axe slashed against the Stand's abdomen. Jotaro gritted his teeth and tanked the hit. Star Platinum drove his fist to Brick's face.

"OOOOURAAAAA!" Brick was quickly smashed onto the ground by Star's bone-breaking punch.

He cartwheeled out of the way, at first glance completely unaffected by the attack, his axe dropping to the ground. "Not bad! But not enough to make a dent in me." he stated, confidence oozing in every word.

"Stop hiding it." Jotaro bluntly said, kicking the axe away, "Just take a look at yourself." he pointed a finger at his mouth.

Brick's smug smirk faltered a bit as he felt around his mouth, without even realizing it his mouth started oozing blood, he kneeled over and spat on the ground, staining the roof with even more red.

Jotaro took the chance and ran towards him, kicking his face in with his own foot. Brick rolled back and his head smashed against the waist-high wall of the tower's roof.

The Stand user gasped for breath, his wounds also taking the best of him. He felt like his legs were going to give in at any moment. "Did you have enough you rotten bastard?"

Brick slowly stood up, his face a mushed up bloody mess.

"Hehe...hehehe...hehehEHEHEHE **HEHEHEHEHE**."

He started laughing manically and his body started to flicker abnormally, like a lightbulb turning on and off at irregular intervals, Jotaro, at that point, just couldn't understand what the hell was happening.

"Enough...No...Not enough…Violence...Challenge...Sacrifice...I LOVE IT! MORE!"

The replica of the Silver Records laid on the ground, shattered.

Brick went on all fours and started blinking in and out, Transporting randomly and snarling like a beast. Jotaro tried to go to a defensive position but his movements were too unpredictable, he went completely and utterly nuts.

Brick quickly swooped his axe off the ground and leaped forward, raising the axe over his head with both hands,.

Star Platinum rushed over to his back and crossed its arms together in an unarmed guard. The axe slashed against the arms and blood flowed out like a river. Star gritted his teeth and its legs trembled at the strong attack.

Brick didn't pull back, in fact he took it like an opportunity. He tried to dig his axe deeper into Star's arms, trying to cut them off completely. The Stand user couldn't do anything else other than try to resist, if he de-summoned his Stand the axe would have slashed his head open like a watermelon, if he tried to pull away from the attack the same would happen, if he tried to push back he'd endanger his arms even further.

In short, he was stuck.

"Yes! YEEES!" Brick moaned out, going completely psychotic. His axe started to dig deeper inside the Stand's arms and was reaching the bone.

A couple of green bullets hit Brick in his now disfigured face, pushing him back. Jotaro turned around and his eyes widened at the sight of a very welcomed visit from his friend.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Jotaro." Kakyoin said, grasping at the edge of the tower and climbing in. He had a few scratches here and there, but compared to everyone else fighting he was in excellent condition.

"Better late than never. Now let's finish this bastard off." He cracked his knuckles, looking down at the Hunter, who was crawling on the ground, his face bleeding profusely.

Kakyoin looked up, "I'll leave the privilege to you, I think I've attracted some...unwanted attention."

As soon as he finished that sentence, a group of three Griffins soared up from down below, looking down at Kakyoin with murderous intent.

He went into a fighting stance and dodged aside when a Grimm tried to ram against him from above, sending out an Emerald Cannon towards it and hitting it in the beak, cracking it and sending it flying away, "I'll keep them occupied!"

Jotaro nodded and ran over towards Brick, clenching his fist as he smashed it against his forehead, sending him with his back against the floor.

Jotaro looked down at him, grabbed his axe, and promptly threw it away down below, where he couldn't reach it.

"What're...ya waiting for?" Brick gasped, coughing out blood. "Kill me...Rip...my guts out...rip my head in half…!" his eyes were still of maniacal excitement, swirling like vortexes. But Jotaro stood there with a look of disdain in his eyes.

He wanted, and had to, kill him. But despite being such a tough delinquent who beat several people to an inch of their life he didn't have it in him to end someone's life in such a violent way, even if that someone was a complete scumbag like Brick.

"I'll...make sure your death is quick." He stated, Star Platinum positioned himself next to Brick and placed a hand on the top of his head, and a hand on his chin, and started moving both hands in opposite directions.

Anyone's first instinct would be to try and free themselves, to push the attacker away, but Brick didn't do that, he just sat there with a grin on his face. His neck started to bend unnaturally, and then…

"Goo...d..."

_Crack_

When Brick's lifeless body hit the floor it felt like a spell in the surrounding zone was broken, it felt as if the air got...lighter, less musty and oppressive.

Jotaro took a deep, deep breath.

The remaining Griffins cawed and started flying away, as if sensing that their strongest ally around was killed. Kakyoin looked over the edge and noticed that the horde was quickly retreating too, going back into the corrupted forest in a hurry.

Kakyoin slowly approached Jotaro, looking down at the dead Hunter, "Should we bury him?"

Jotaro touched the side of his head, now that the fight was over and the rush of adrenaline ended his entire body ached, and his head burned. "I guess so, but first we have to find Polnareff."

* * *

Polnareff stood after the two civilians caught in the crossfire, and Silver Chariot's rapier was dripping with Grimm 'blood'.

"Yeah! Go away and don't come back!" He shouted as the last Grimm ran away with its tail between its legs. Both the grandpa and the grandson were left in awe and speechless at what happened right in front of their eyes. To them the spirit of a silver-clad knight appeared in front of the wounded stranger and started slashing away at groups of Grimm.

He turned around, looking at them, "Just...don't tell what happened here once we get back, 'kay?"

Both nodded. Suddenly they heard the sounds of steps coming from the above floor nearing them.

Polnareff went into a fighting position, looking up at the staircase with a serious look. "Who's there?!"

"It's just us!" Kakyoin stated, the outline of his green uniform starting to form in Polnareff's field of vision.

He took a deep breath of relief when he saw him and Jotaro walking behind him. "Did...we win?" he tentatively asked, the chances of bad news was lowered, but it was good to stay on guard.

"Seems that way." Kakyoin started "Jotaro here took care of the big guy, for good. Though I don't know what happened to the woman."

Polnareff took a deep breath, frowning, "She's still kickin'. I was able to wound her somewhat, but she ran away." He walked closer to them, turning around and signing at the two bystanders to wait for a moment.

"But still, man...You look like a mess." Polnareff said, looking over at Jotaro. He wasn't exactly wrong, he had deep long cuts everywhere on his body.

"Look who's talking." Jotaro stated, "You look like you've been assaulted by a group of angry cats." And indeed the cuts from the Fiore's cane whip looked like many small scratches.

"You also looked like a dead body while I was climbing the tower, you had me worried for a while." Kakyoin said with a smirk.

They looked at each-other for a small while, before Polnareff embraced both of them, forcing them in a group hug.

"We...we did it..." Polnareff was sobbing and tears were streaming out of his eyes, "Aaah...I can't wait to tell this to the girls at Beacon..." he sniffled a bit. He didn't know why he was crying, but he couldn't stop the tears from flowing

"Oh come on. You're a grown adult, at least try to hide it while crying in front of people you saved." Jotaro said with a hint of sarcasm and with a genuine smile.

Just before the two could hug back, he walked back and wiped his face with his hand, "A-Ah..sorry. We need to get out of here as soon as possible."

Before walking out of the forest the group buried Brick near the tower, inside the 'circle' the various landmines made. His body was covered in the purple earth of the corrupted forest, his own axe buried in the ground instead of a cross.

[To Be Continued]-->


	52. The Last Piece

Polnareff took a deep breath of fresh air, leaning against the wall outside of the inn. "Man, this village sure became a lot cooler after we returned."

He stretched his arms up, still aching slightly from the bad beatdown he got the day before. "But if what that crazy Hunter guy said was true, he was the direct cause of this."

Kakyoin sat on the ground near the dirt road, "I guess we don't have anything to do here any longer, huh? The reason we wanted to go to a village like this is because those two were stalking us, and at least one of them is not a problem any more."

"I guess you're right. Yo, Jotaro!" Polnareff shouted, despite Jotaro being right next to him, "What should we do now? Got any ideas?"

He looked down in thought, arms crossed. "Let's wait here for the day to see how's the situation, then tonight let's start going back to Vale"

"I agree." Kakyoin stood up, "Plus, now that we have saved up enough pocket money from our part-time jobs we shouldn't need to worry about money for a little while."

Polnareff smiled slightly, looking up at the cloudy, but nonetheless bright sky, "I wonder how Ruby and the others are managing there."

Kakyoin dusted off his clothes and smiled "I assume not very well. Who could ever manage without your expert janitor skills?"

* * *

That night:

Ruby soared up with the blade of Crescent Rose behind her, jumping from building roof to building roof and looking around, wary.

She took cover next to a rather large water tank, holding her scythe near her body so it would not stand out of her cover. She took a deep breath and stole a glance around. She heard a worrying sounds, like small explosions that slowly got closer, and closer, and closer.

She reloaded her weapon, looking around nervously for the source.

When she realized where the sound was coming from it was already too late. A tall and slim figure flew up into the ceiling and smashed through the water tank, thankfully half empty, and grinned down at Ruby.

"Hi, sis!" She shouted as her fist smashed against her with the power of a golden flaming dragon, making Ruby fly back with a 'Waah!"

Yang didn't waste any time and propelled herself forward, throwing a shotgun-powered punch right at her half sister. The attack smashed into the ground as Ruby dodged sideways, chunks of the roof flying off.

She regained her balance and with a focused look and was about to swing her scythe right at the blondie. But suddenly she was thrown off by a feeling of extreme cold and rigidity on her feet, stopping before the strike could connect, and looked down.

Her boots and her ankle and the ground she was standing on were frozen solid!

"Good work, Weiss!" Yang shouted, and as of result Ruby quickly turned around. Weiss was standing right behind her, holding her rapier and with a not-so-subtly smug smile on her face.

Yang threw back her arm and then it smashed against the poor Ruby, flying back right towards Weiss, her rapier eager to greet her.

At the same time, a shadow jumped down from a taller building into that roof, and suddenly bullets started raining down towards Weiss and hitting the ground next to her feet.

"What the-!" She exclaimed and dodged aside, the bullets following her. The shadow swooped down and grabbed Ruby, stopping her from falling off the building.

"Thanks, Blake!" She looked up, though the only thing to receive her praise was a stone decoy made by Blake's semblance, she was already rushing towards Yang, her sword and edged scabbard at the ready. She jumped up and brought her two blades down at her teammate.

Yang crossed her arms, letting her gauntlets take the majority of the attack. The sheer forces of her slashes made her stumble back a bit, making her lose ground.

While this happened Ruby disentangled from the stone decoy's hold and rushed towards Weiss, jumping up and down and trying to snipe her from above.

A bullet barely grazed her back and scratched her Aura, but she looked rather annoyed nonetheless. She ran around, and tried to steer away from Blake and Yang's fighting, attacking Ruby with ice-cold Dust blasts, exchanging ranged attacks with Ruby.

A sniper battle on top of the city's buildings. Well...a very close range sniper battle, on top of a single roof, without any major covers.

Not a sniper battle at all, really.

Yang smirked as she ducked from another of Blake's slashes, ramming her head against her stomach and making her stagger back.

She used the distraction to dash over to Ruby, who gasped and was almost hit by a stray frost bolt. But just as Yang was about to reach her, she tripped over herself.

No, she didn't trip, she was being pulled back! The black rope hidden in Blake's weapon wrapped around her legs and pulled her to the ground, laying with her stomach down as she was dragged back.

Ruby took the chance to leap forward, suddenly switching her sniper-scythe's cartridge with one with a rough drawing of an explosion painted on top of it, and pointed her scythe down at her sister,.

_Bam! Bam! Bam!_

Three consecutive shots hit Yang dead-on in the chest, her Aura faltered for a bit, but managing to keep the bullets away from her body. She blinked and groaned and tried to struggle free out of Blake's resistant rope, her eyes turning red.

"Blake, quick! Go to Weiss!" Ruby ordered, "I'll take care of Yang!" She quickly reloaded the bullet

The Faunus girl gave her a quick nod and unwrapped her rope from Yang. And in that moment.

_BOOM!_

Three small explosions went off at once from where the bullets hit, creating a rather big ball of fire that enveloped Yang. She flew out of the fumes and smacked against the ground face first. At that point, everything seemed to pause.

The three looked at her, anxious...Until she suddenly stoop up, a grin on her face and a mane of golden locks on her head. The explosions only made her stronger!

"That's enough for today. Stop before anyone gets hurt.." A woman said, jumping on top of the roof. It was Professor Glynda, looking rather tired, wit small bags under her eyes. She waved her wand around the roof, and the damaged parts started to slowly come back together, enveloped by a slightly purple aura. "I thought I told you four about collateral damage, right?"

The four slowly lined up next to each other and bowed their heads, looking apologetic. "It was cool, though." Yang muttered under her breath, and Blake gave her a quick look that seemed to say 'Don't do that again.'

The instructor sighed, shaking her head "Well, I guess it is inevitable in a setting like this. Still, keep that in mind next time."

"Next time? You mean we're going to do this again tomorrow?" Weiss looked at her, hoping that…

"Indeed."

And that hope was gone. The four groaned, tired. "I'm not exactly thrilled about this either, I have a sleep schedule I have to maintain."

"How's this going to make us better at fighting Stand users?" Yang asked, blinking and her red eyes turning to their normal magenta tint.

"This is not about fighting Stands. We do not have any way to simulate such an attack. This is about being at your best form. In any sort of fight you all will need to think quickly and act quickly, and to make sure that your Aura and your body will be able to endure attacks."

Ruby sighed, "But...we already do that."

Glynda shook her head. "You all may be talented, but you're still first-years. Talent won't bring you anywhere without experience and training, and that's exactly what your upper-classmen have. That's what distinguishes a Huntress-In-Training to a true guardian of the Kingdom."

She turned around, giving them their back, "And thhat's exactly why we're doing this. Not many students get to spar in the middle of the sleeping city. Well, not without getting into trouble." She turned around, and gave the Team a subtle smile, "You all already have training that most students don't get. So I do not want to hear any complaining!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" The four said in unison, Glynda's word encouraging them.

Despite that, when they returned to their dorms, they were completely destroyed. That rooftop battle was one of many small spars they had been done throughout the night. In fact it was so late that the morning started to slowly rise.

"Please don't tell me this is our schedule from now on..." Weiss asked, her long unbound hair a complete, almost spiky, mess.

Yang sprayed out on her bed, not even bothering to take off her gauntlets or boots."Uugh..I hope not, or I'll have to give Ozpin a piece of my mind!"

"You all agreed to this, though..." Blake muttered, arm hanging out lazily from the bunk bed.

"C'mon, don't be so down! Today was just the bumpy start, we'll get used to it in no time!" Ruby said, as cheerful and naive as ever.

"Used to sleeping so late? No, no thank you." Weiss bumped face-first on the pillow, it was kind of funny seeing the heiress to one of the biggest companies in Remnant act like a regular teenage student that got no time to sleep.

Blake stood up and walked over to the switch, and turned off the light, surrounding the room in absolute impenetrable darkness!

"H-Hey!"

"Good night." She said calmly but firmly, climbing up on her bed.

* * *

"An entire night fighting each-other?" Jaune repeated, surprised.

"Sounds rough." Ren simply said, sipping some tea, like every day Team RWBY and Team JNPR gathered at the table of the cafeteria, only this time there was an addition:

"Dang, I wish I was there to see it, but I had to be with that old man who kept explaining me how Atlas works and how I would be protected." Josuke said, leaning back against his chair. He usually wouldn't be allowed in such a place, but he insisted to do it at least once. A few students looked at him confused, either asking to others who he was or that they saw him wandering around in the dormitory once in a while.

"Old man?" Pyrrha tilted her head, "You mean Ironwood, right?"

"What  _does_  he want from a guy like you anyhow?" Nora asked, leaning over curious.

Josuke shrugged then looked at each member of Team RWBY, who shrugged back. None of them could conjure up a genuine answer to that question.

"He doesn't seem like a bad guy, so I guess we'll see."

Suddenly, someone walked inside, and all eyes turned to the door.

Some students nearly spat out what they were drinking when the three figures entered the cafeteria, and a huge murmur began filling the area.

"What the-It can't be!"

"I thought they dropped out!"

"The janitor too…?"

Jotaro Kakyoin and Polnareff casually walked in, trying to not make a big deal about their return. Team RWBY was left completely speechless, their mouths agape.

"Woah woah, are those Mr. Jotaro's past travel partners?" Josuke asked, eyes darting between Kakyoin and Polnareff, "Why did he never introduce them to me?"

Wait, was Jotaro from the past, and Josuke was from the present? Or was Jotaro from the present and Josuke was from the future? He shook his head to shake out that confusing thought.

Team JNPR looked over at them as they approached, "We never officially introduced ourselves, did we?" Ren asked, looking over at his teammates.

Pyrrha smiled, and waved slightly at the three. "Well, now we have our chance!"

But before they could...Yang stood up, head hung low, and gave a not-so-playful punch on Jotaro's shoulder!

"Gh-! What was that for?" Jotaro asked, confused and surprised at the same time. She then gave a punch of similar force to Kakyoin and Polnareff.

"For not even bothering to message us, you jerks!"

"O-Ow, keep it down!" Kakyoin whispered, trying to ignore all the...judgemental stares they were getting.

She slowly raised her head and she...was crying.

The rest of Team RWBY had a few tears leaking out too. "W-Woah!" Jaune exclaimed, not understanding why they suddenly got emotional. "Did someone start cutting onions?"

Pyrrha slowly stood up, smiling gently. "It's better we go for now, we can introduce ourselves another time. Excuse us."

"Oh! Ah...okay." Jaune stumbled a bit as Pyrrha gently pulled him up, and Team JNPR slowly walked out of the cafeteria, saluting the other team.

Yang wiped away her tears, getting her glove all wet. Then, she roughly grabbed Jotaro and pulled him to the table, with such strength he nearly fell flat on his face. Not wanting to actually meet such a fate the other two quietly sat down next to the slightly dazed Jotaro.

Josuke scooted a little bit further with a serious look on his face. Silently looking at the scene before him.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Weiss asked, arms crossed and hoping that her tears weren't too obvious, but they very much were.

"W-Well...Uh..." Polnareff scratched the back of his head, not knowing how to reply. It was like a bunch of little kids getting scolded by worried parents. Though in this case it was one adult and two teenagers getting scolded by four teenage girls.

"You made all of us so worried!" Ruby shouted, letting out a deep breath. "We feared that you four…" She paused and looked at the others.

"We thought you three died on us." Blake voiced the team's hidden thought. They never talked about it out loud, but it was obvious that all four feared the same thing.

"…" Josuke stared at them silently, he had no idea how attached that Team became to them.

The three felt five piercing gazes stabbing them, how could they have replied.

"Well..." Polnareff started

"How do we say this…." Kakyoin continued, becoming slightly red from embarrassment.

Jotaro tipped his hat over his eyes, less to seen cool and more to not look at them in the eye. "...We forgot."

"..."

"..."

"A-Are you kiddin' me? How could you forget about somethin' like that?!" Josuke shouted.

Weiss looked at them, smiling….smiling a crooked smile, "You..forgot, huh?"

Yang cracked her knuckles menacingly, flashing a similar smile. "Maybe we should teach you how to keep this stuff to memory then."

A shiver went down their backs, "N-now now! We travelled all night to get here on time! We didn't get even an hour of sleep on the train!" Polnareff tried to tone down their imminent punishment, were they really going to do it in a public place?!

"Do your worst!" Josuke cupped his hands in front of his face, "I can fix them up anyhow!"

Ruby laughed slightly, not having in her to join in the playful 'punishment'. Blake smiled too, this was definitely the most relaxed they all felt in a while.

Unfortunately, the relaxed air that was settling back in was short lived.

Another figure wandered in the cafeteria. Ginger hair, shadow of a beard, body covered by an orange cloak with a strange pattern drawn on it...It did not look at all like a student or a teacher. There was some sort of...strange aura around him. The sound of his steps were heavy, and his expression was deadpan and serious.

He walked over to the group's table, and sat next to them without asking.

"I guess I should introduce myself..." he started as the others looked at him with curiosity and confusion. "I'm most known to you all by my title. 'The Door'."

The group's eyes opened up in realization. And The Door quickly showed them the back of his cloak. The design on it was that of a half-opened door with a floral pattern on its surface.

"Wa-How...How did you get in here?!" Ruby couldn't help but shout. The others tried desperately to not pounce on the guy and beat the crap out of him. He was claiming to be the leader of a faction trying to kill them!

"Through the front door." He said simply. "Forgive me for the unintentional play on words. I'm not here to fight."

"As you may or may not know...I'm the 'Gateway' between this world and the one right next to it, 'Earth'."

Jotaro nodded, "We figured as much. But why the hell did you bring us here? What's your motive?"

"It wasn't my intention to bring you here. I only brought, and only can bring, two 'objects'. You Stand Users were all pulled in here by fate, because all of you have an 'objective' to achieve in this world."

"The only things I brought were one of the Stand Arrows...and the half-destroyed body of Dio Brando, after the battle against Jotaro Kujo." He looked over at Jotaro, who clenched his fist tight.

"So, we get it, you're pretty much the one behind all of this." Polnareff angrily looked at him, tempted to summon his Stand, "Now tell us one reason not to make your ass grass right now."

"'Make your ass grass'? Who says that?" Blake asked, confused.

The Door looked stoically at the group, tapping his fingers on the long table. "For the simple reason you all wouldn't gain anything from doing so. I am no longer your enemy."

"Really now? Why the change of heart?" Yang looked at him with suspicion, making sure to make a mental note of his every movement.

The Door closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I have my reasons, and we both got some common enemies. These past few assassins were 'tests' to see if you all were worthy of fighting against fate, and against greater opponents."

"Stop with this cryptic stuff, get to the point!"

He rummaged under his cloak and suddenly showed a piece of paper to the group. "This is the last page needed to decrypt that diary."

They all looked warily at the piece of paper as it was dropped in front of them. The strange man stood up, "Find the Silver Records...and destroy them once and for all."

And just as quickly as he came in, the man called The Door walked out.

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Sorry if the last parts feel a bit...rushed, I kinda had a busy week and had to speed through this chapter.


	53. Towards Icy Lands

"What is that Door guy scheming?" Yang asked, not to anyone in particular and more thinking out loud. It had been a couple of days since the return of the Stand users to Vale, and there was little progress with the Silver Record's diary de-cyrptation.

And worst of all, Josuke Higashikata was unceremoniously escorted out by Atlas soldiers that very morning, they barely had any time to say goodbye to each other.

The four girls were out in the city, taking a walk and trying to take their mind off the things that had been happening recently, failing.

"There is no point in thinking about that right now." Weiss said, tapping her foot on the ground nervously. "Blake has been working all night trying to decipher that strange diary, we just have to wait."

"But...there's also that weird... _thing_  that was written along the solution." Ruby turned around the piece of paper in her hands, and then tapped a corner, showing it off to the others "Right here in the bottom left, it reads like some sort of...prophecy."

**The ones not of this world have a purpose, a meaning, an objective. Only once their objective is complete will they find a way back to their world. The boy from both the future and the past must stop the ever-spinning Records to return to his hometown.**

"If Polnareff was here, he'd probably say something like 'That bastard is just trying to mess with us! Don't listen to 'im!'" Yang imitated Polnareff very, very badly, probably intentionally, making the others smile.

"I doubt something like that's the case." Blake said, her right hand on her hip, "I don't know know why, but...I don't think he was lying or messing with us. I have no proof, just my gut instinct."

'The boy from both the future and the past...What do you think it means? Who's it talking about?" Ruby closed her eyes and tried to think about someone that would fit that very vague and cryptic description, but nothing came to mind. Then, a second later, a very familiar face popped up in her thoughts, "Hometown...could it be talking about Josuke?"

Weiss's eyes widened "Does that mean...his 'purpose' is to take down the Silver Records?!"

* * *

Candid snow fell from above, covering the roads and the tall buildings with an almost mystical white. It was beautiful, and also really, really,  _really_  cold.

"Brr...I feel like I'm about to become an icicle." Josuke hugged himself in a vain attempt to warm himself up as he stepped out of the airship, standing right next to Ironwood, they gave him a maroon heavy jacket to cover him from the weather, though it did not do much.

Ironwood placed his gloved hand on Josuke's shoulder, smiling reassuringly, "You'll get used to it, this is your new home, after all."

Josuke tried to ignore it. He wasn't okay with being forcibly relocated to Atlas, not a single bit, but he might as well just play along. "Y-Yeah..."

If there was way to describe Atlas academy in a single phrase, that would be 'huge and clean'.

It definitely looked the part of a military school, much more than Beacon, and students were coming and going with their pristine white uniforms. This academy was much more than a simple academy, it was the center of the government, the school and the nation itself were the same exact thing.

They made him take off his blue jacket with his signature pins for the school's uniform, and was then quickly given his own dorm room….Well, more of a hastily re-outfitted closet room than an actual bedroom, they couldn't spare giving away a room made for a team of four people for a single student, and it would have had been 'safer' if he wasn't in a Team to begin with.

Josuke quickly took off his uniform and shoes as soon as they left him alone and laid his back against the bed, resting. At least they gave him a decent bed and the obligatory heater. "Great goddamn hospitality they're showing me." He looked up slightly at the surveillance camera staring down at him with its glass eye. "No privacy either, huh?"

He felt a bit like a lab rat being experimented on. Atlas and Ironwood weren't the enemy, he was sure of that, but they sure tried their hardest to look like they were.

He closed his eyes a bit, he technically could, and was encouraged to, wander around the campus and make himself feel welcome inside the school, and it was still morning. But he simply didn't feel like it, he was woken up at midnight to take a long flight to the North Pole of Remnant and was forced in a closet that probably was more fit housing brooms and boxes than people.

He was not in the best mood.

Suddenly, he heard something vibrate and he opened his eyes. The folded uniform was vibrating, it must have been the Scroll.

He sighed and slowly stood up, walking over to it and picking it up. The screen displayed the name and picture of Ruby Rose, his first instinct was to answer the call, but…

He slowly looked up at the camera, and slowly walked out of the room, at least the hallway wasn't as monitored.

"'Sup, Ruby?"

"Heya Josuke! How's it going there? How's Atlas?" Ruby replied. Her voice brought a smile to his face, at least he wasn't completely cut off from them.

"It's...ah, it's okay, I guess."

"Really? Weiss always avoids talking about Atlas. Hope you're having fun there!"

Yeah, fun, right. No wonder Weiss didn't want to stay there, the whole nation had some sort of thin oppressive veil, the fact she was an heiress to one of the richest families in the world probably just worsened her situation. "Ah...I think that's enough about me, how're you all doin'? "

"We're...managing, we still haven't fully cracked the code, but it won't be long now! We'll definitely find the bad guys and put them back in their place!"

"Good to know. I'll keep you all updated if something weird happens around these parts." As he said that he quickly looked to his left and his right, making sure nobody and nothing was staring at him.

"All right then! Good-"

"...Hold it, I found something!" He heard a muffled voice coming from the other side of the call. It was difficult to understand, but if Josuke had to guess it probably was Blake.

"Wait, really?" Ruby's tone seemed surprise. "Give me a second Josuke!"

The call went eerily silent. Josuke looked back at the screen confused, she definitely didn't hang up, so what was happening?

After a moment of waiting around awkwardly in the hallway, sounds started coming from Scroll, like someone was quickly trying to grab it and almost stumbled when they did.

"Y-You won't believe what we found out!"

"Uh? What?" He quickly brought the Scroll to his ear, curiosity taking over.

"We found the hideout of the Silver Records!"

"That's great! You all can finally begin the assault on 'em! Kick their asses for me." He was a little saddened at the thought of not being able to join, but oh well, such is life.

Or so he thought.

"W-Well..." Ruby suddenly sounded nervous, "Well, the thing is...According to the coordinates thingies we found in the diary…The hideout is in Atlas territory."

He nearly fell over himself as he heard those news. "W-What?! You ain't kiddin, right?!"

"Why would I joke around about this?!" Ruby shouted back.

"Oh crap..." Josuke scratched his head. He thought they'd be around in Vale or in some other place in Remnant. What were the odds of them being in Atlas?

Well, a lot more than he at first thought. Everywhere uncivilized in Atlas was a completely frozen deathtrap. Few to no Grimm live there, and nobody in their right mind would wander off in the middle of the icy nothing, making it next to impossible for anyone to accidentally stumble upon their hideout.

On second thought, Atlas was probably the best location for a hideout around.

"What are the plans now? How do you plan on taking them down?"

Silence.

"Hello?"

More silence.

"Uh...hel-"

"I heard you! I'm just...thinking." Ruby replied.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the call:

Ruby distanced herself a bit from the phone and faced her Team currently surrounding Blake and the diary held in her hands, a determined look in her face.

"Girls-"

"Oh no, that look and that word never signifies anything good." Weiss commented.

"Ahem...Girls, pack your bags, we're going to Atlas!"

"…You know, I really,  _really_  hate you sometimes."

"Hey, hate's a strong word!"

* * *

"Woah woah hey! Stop pushing so much!" Polnareff complained as Ruby pushed him up the ramp of the Airship. She might have been a shortie, but she had considerable muscle in those arms!

"B-But we just came back from-"

"But you have us this time!"

Blake looked down slightly, "Are we sure about this…? We still don't know the exact location of the hideout, and our training hasn't really showed results yet..." she said as Yang practically dragged Jotaro by the wrist like an excited little kid.

"Hmph..." Jotaro said nothing as he walked inside the Airship.

"Come on, Blake! Sometimes you gotta live for those spur-of-the-moment decisions!" Yang grinned, right on the entrance of the Airship. The Headmaster allowed them to borrow one for a 'very important mission' in Atlas, and they weren't exactly lying about that.

"You're that concept personified. Yang" Blake stepped up the ramp, looking slightly annoyed.

Kakyoin, last in the line, looked around. "Wait, where's Weiss…?"

Ruby's head poked through the open entrance, "She said she had to do...something important."

"Don't tell me she had to go to the bathroom right before our takeoff..." Yang shook her head, "Ah well, I'll go take my seat." She turned around and stepped in.

Suddenly a figure walked in view. At first they couldn't recognize it...until it finally hit them.

It was Weiss, with her long hair running down her back completely untied, and with the maroon school uniform.

"Weiss…? Where's your outfit?" Ruby tilted her head, "Did you just wake up from a nap or something?"

She shook her head, "I would prefer if you did not refer to me as Weiss once we get to Atlas." she stated in an almost theatrical manner.

"Eh?"

Weiss sighed at her teammate's confusion, and quickly went up the ramp, walking past Kakyoin and Yang and pushing Ruby back inside. "I'll explain when we get there!"

Kakyoin looked at Yang and she simply shrugged.

After all of them went inside, the pilot started up the engine. All of them could feel it in their skin, the final attack against the Silver Records was close, and it might have been their most dangerous mission...well, ever.

And in just a minute the group was above the ground, their 'trip' had begun.

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. A bit of a shorter chapter this week. Sorry to break the 2k+ words streak I've been going for a while!
> 
> 2\. I made this warning a while back in the fanfic, but it's good to make it again: Since RWBY is still ongoing future information from the show may contradict what's shown here, like the general look of Atlas.


	54. Bizarre Visions

Ruby circled nervously around the airship, "Come on, tell us! What's wrong?"

The pilot was kneeling next to the backside of the Airship, checking on the insides, "That's the thing, I don't know..." he sighed, smacking the thing once or twice and then taking out a wrench, screwing and unscrewing some components. "I don't understand, it was working last time...I even made sure to change the Dust for this voyage."

"It is impolite to keep ladies waiting, you know." Weiss, still with her hair down, stated. The group was all gathered around the airship, standing there or sitting on the grassy ground. They had to make an emergency landing on the northern edge of the continent due to a mysterious malfunction.

"You're not ladies, you're teenagers!" Polnareff sat down on a tree stump, hands on his knees. The only things of interest around were trees, trees, and more trees.

Weiss gave him an ice-cold stare before saying "Unnecessary comment, let us move on."

"Still, this is fun! I've never been so outside the borders before!" Ruby jumped up a tree and moved her legs back and forth while sitting on top of the tall tree branch.

Kakyoin was just under her tree, arms crossed, "I would say 'get off that tree! It's dangerous!' But I don't think such a small fall would hurt you anyhow."

"'Fun' aside..." Blake started, "How long will it take you to fix this?"

The pilot scratched the side of his head, thinking, "Hmm, about a day or so."

"What?! That's outrageous! We need to go to Atlas immediately!" Weiss couldn't believe those words were coming out of her mouth. She didn't think even for a second about coming back to Atlas before this turn of events.

"That's the minimum! Or do you want us to crash in the middle of the ocean mid-flight?" the pilot asked, going back to fixing up the airship.

"But what about food and shelter?" Blake was starting to get a little bit nervous, she didn't like this situation one bit. "As far as I know there are no villages for miles and miles."

The pilot was head deep into airship's engine, fiddling around with it, some nuts and bolts would occasionally fly out behind him. "There's some canned food for emergencies, it should last us the day. And the forest will do as a shelter."

Judging from their expressions nobody at all was pleased with that idea. "What about the Grimm?" Jotaro simply asked.

"Oh, come on, no need to worry about that!" Yang announced, cracking her knuckles. "We're all experienced fighters here, right? A few Grimms won't be a problem if we keep an eye out for them!"

And so they did. They worked for three hours for establishing their temporary shelter: a rudimentary campfire, a couple of cut down logs for benches and very uncomfortable beds, and a couple of pillows they managed to bring along for the trip, though not enough for all eight of them.

"Haah...haah..phew. Finally, it's done." Ruby took some deep breaths, "At least moving around those logs was some good training."

"Yeah, seriously. I might build up some serious muscle if this keeps going!"Polnareff flexed his arms, showing off.

"You're already muscular, how much more beefy can you possibly get?" Blake shook her head, sighing.

"Hey, more is better. Right?"

"Not...really."

"In other news!" Ruby suddenly changed the topic, "The pilot said the airship should be up and running tomorrow morning! So for now we'll just have to sleep here. So...we should give out guard duties!"

"Count me out! I want to sleep." Weiss quickly said, head fall into the pillow laying on the hard cut wood, her hair was an absolute mess, nobody in her team ever saw her like this!

Yang raised a hand, "I have an idea!" she started, and began explaining as soon as all eyes were on her. "How about we have two persons on guard? One of our team, and one of Jotaro's group!"

"What? Why couples?" Kakyoin spoke up, confused by the concept.

"Well...four eyes are better than two, right? And by doing so, you boys get to pull your weight."

Kakyoin closed his eyes. "But if we're doing turns that would mean that all of us will have to have at least one guard duty each, while one of you won't need to do it at all."

"I think it's less about us 'pulling our weight' and more making us do all the work..."

"C'mon, Polnie. I wouldn't think of something so selfish."

Polnie? Where did that come from?

He sighed, and looked over at Jotaro, "Whaddya say?"

Jotaro simply nodded, as if he barely heard the discussion. He was oddly silent...too silent even by his standards.

"Then it's decided!" Ruby announced.

After that they played Rock Paper Scissor to decide their turns, and it went out like this:

Blake:Kakyoin, then Yang:Jotaro and lastly Ruby:Polnareff. Weiss was the lucky winner and was promptly left out of the guard turns, just as she wanted.

* * *

Jotaro seemed to stare emptily ahead, beyond the fire of the campfire and into the shadows of the forest.

"Hey...do you feel fine? You seem out of it." Yang looked at him from the other side of the campfire, sitting on the ground. Everyone else was sleeping on top of the cut down tree logs, and

Jotaro closed his eyes and gritted his teeth tightly for just a second, as if in pain, before going back to his previous expression.

Yang sighed, placing a leg on top of the other, "I know you're not as emotionless as you want to let on, you're just thinking about something, aren't you?"

"...huh?" As if snapping back to reality, Jotaro looked at Yang like she grew a second head.

"See? You weren't even listening to me." Yang pointed at him, as if to say 'gotcha'. "You barely spoke a word today, and you didn't even eat."

"Don't be such a pain. Yes, I've been thinking, what about it?" Jotaro replied, "That's what most people do, right?"

"Then let's talk about what you're thinking. At least we'll pass this boring guard trip quickly." She gave him a relaxed smile.

"Fine, fine, damn." Jotaro sighed, and looked up at her. "It sounds stupid, but I've been having some strange...visions while we were on the airship, and the more we got closer to Atlas the more vivid they become."

She tilted her head, "Visions? What kind of visions?"

"That's the thing, I don't know for certain." He touched the side of his head, "But what I know is that it's giving me a big headache, and there's some sort of...spinning..." Jotaro paused, gritting his teeth again, "...disk. And it just keeps happening."

"Why didn't you tell us about this sooner? We could have helped you, y'know." Yang said that instinctively, but on second thought...what could they have done to fix something so strange?

"I actually got an idea on why it might be happening." He started, "For two times, after having some strange dreams, I woke up with strange cuts on my arms and legs, one time I even passed out in public. For the longest time I couldn't remember what the 'dream' was, but..."

"But…?"

"You remember the fight at the tower, right?"

"Duh, too bad I wasn't there to see it."

"Well, when that 'Hunter' used those silver objects he called 'replicas', I suddenly remembered. Despite Kakyoin and Polnareff also being affected by this 'dream', I was the only one to remember them, and then be affected by these visions..."

"So you're saying the visions have some sort of connection to the Silver Records?"

Jotaro nodded and then took a deep breath, finally speaking to someone about it felt like taking a load off his chest.

She looked down, arms crossed over her chest, "Just what are these Silver Records anyway? From what we know it could really be anything."

She blinked and then yawned, stretching her arms upwards, looking at her asleep teammates. "All this thinking is getting me tired, think it's time to change guard?"

However, without even having said 'good night', Jotaro was laying on the grass, asleep. It seemed he had exhausted all energies for that day.

"Wow." She laughed under her breath, and then wished him a good night before waking up Ruby and Polnareff for their turn.

* * *

Josuke looked down at his hand. Where the hell was he? Wherever he looked was snow, snow, snow, and more snow, like an infinite icy desert. And yet he didn't feel the single bit cold.

"What the hell..? I was just sleeping in that stupid broom closet, and now-"

Then something seemed to appear out of the snow. Four silver circular disks, big as bike wheels, floated in the air, all four lined next to each other. The hollow centre began to glow red, and suddenly it felt like four giant eyes were staring Josuke.

"T-The hell's is this?!" Josuke got chills, was this a dream? It had to be one of those lucid dreams he had been hearing about, he closed his eyes and tried to tell himself to wake up.

" _ **ACTIVE**_ _ **THREAT DETECTED. EXPULSION. EXPULSION.**_ " The loud mechanical voice boomed in his ear, making him stagger backwards. Then the loud sound of a siren started to reverb around the place. But it didn't make sense, how could it reverb if it was in such an open place?!

Okay, now he was really, really freaking out. The scenario around him seemed to twist and turn and melt, it was like something from a fever-induced nightmare. He could just imagine those spinning disks shooting out giant laser beams at him.

_Wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up!_

He repeated it over and over in his head, closing his eyes. After a certain point he felt everything go silent.

He woke up in the middle of the night, his bed a sweaty mess, he found himself sit up and breath heavily, clutching at the covers. "W-what the…?"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was just a dream, he was safe there, he was sure of it.

He looked up and glared at the camera. It was best he didn't act weird, he had to lay low as much as possible. It was possible that someone was watching him right at that moment.

He laid down again and covered his body with the thick fur covers

* * *

"Father." Fiore called out, stepping into the wide room. No, it was not a simple room, it was more like holy ground.

Half of it was a huge underground cathedral, with symbols of the Silver Records spread out on banners, the other half was a deep void that went down and down and down, deep into the bowels of the earth, and in the depth laid the most precious items of all, the true Silver Records. That is where they gathered for the most delicate rituals and sacrifices.

The hooded master was standing on the edge of the void, looking down below, "Yes?"

Only she ever called him father, not even as a child Brick called him that. "I just wanted to let you know...I was serious about my offer. I will take on any punishment for letting Brick die. Take my arms or my legs, or even my life if you wish." She looked down, sombre.

"Do not be foolish." He turned around, facing her. "I am just glad that you are now safe."

It was just as Brick said, her father would not shed a single tear if he died, he only cared about her. That didn't make her feel better at all.

"And do not even dare think 'It would have been better if it would have been me.'" He walked towards her, keeping his head down, and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Fiore, you are so much more important than you think, you are not a simple Hunter of Men, you are gifted with a power like no other, the power to control the Grimm naturally. If it were not for you I do not think we would have come this far."

She looked down, silently. "Because the Silver Records need both human blood and Grimm essence to create Elixirs, I know." A tear rolled down her cheek, her mascara along with it, "I just...wish I could have given this idiotic gift to someone else."

Even the master of the Silver Records could not bear see his daughter in such a state. He embraced her into a hug, petting her head. For that moment the cold hearted leader seemed a bit more human. "There there, soon our ultimate project will be complete."

She looked up at his fathere, clearing away her tears, "Y...you me-"

Suddenly, someone ran inside the Cathedral. A simple member of the Silver Records, looking agitated, "Master Bronzo! The Records! They're...agitated!"

He quickly dissolved the hug, letting the daughter sit on a stone bench. "In what sense 'agitated'?"

"I-I don't know...it's just acting strangely!"

Bronzo quickly apologized to Fiore and left the cathedral.

Soon after he was inside the Chamber of the Records. The chamber was wide, and the smell of blood covered it entirely, like how stains of dried blood covered the ground and walls. And in the centre there was a large pedestal, with the four spinning Records. Two Records spun on top of one-another, and the other pair did the same.

They should have, at least. The four records were floating and seemed disjointed, floating restlessly and spinning quickly.

Bronzo's eyes went wide with shock and surprise. "I...cannot believe this, the Silver Records themselves are afraid."

* * *

The shadowy large figure moved around the mansion, looking out lazily outside the window of the mansion. This was the only time he was allowed a safe viewing of the outside. He touched his bare chest, his wound was almost completely healed, it was only a matter of time.

"Sir, the preparations are done." Another figure, one of a bald man in an Atlas uniform, wandered inside the room, holding up the severed head of a man by the hair.

"Ah, yes, Steele." Dio turned around, his body covered by the shadows, "To think that one must go through so much just to summon one's Stand...How ridiculous." He mused, arms crossed.

The ex-Officer Steele bowed down before his master, dropping the head.

"But I have to give credit where it is due. You have done well serving me, and your Stand opens the door of my plan." Dio smirked devilishly, "Just a bit more time and I, Dio, will be the one ruling over that woman, and then none shall stand in my way ever again."

[To Be Continued]-->


	55. Reunion In Snow

When the first rays of sunshine started pouring from above the group wasted no time getting onto the fixed airship. "Strap your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a rocky lift off." The pilot advised from his cabin, and the airship slowly started to rumble."

"I'm...a bit worried." Ruby admitted, putting her seatbelt on, "I mean...I don't know, I just have a bad feeling."

"Probably because this is your first time going to another continent via airship, it's going to be fine!" Yang said, in an attempt to ease her nervousness.

Polnareff stretched his arms upwards, "Man, what a pain in the ass though, having to spend an entire night in the middle of nowhere."

Kakyoin smirked a bit, putting on his sunglasses. "We've been travelling so much we're turning nomad, by the time we come back home I will have a hard time sleeping in the same place for more than a few weeks."

"Yeah...home." Jotaro muttered, looking down at the floor. The thought never really crossed his mind till that moment, how was his grandpa and mom doing in his world? How much time had passed? For all he knew years could have passed, or seconds.

Suddenly the airship was filled with a soft rumble that slowly intensified. The grass and trees were moved by the wind as the hulking flying piece of metal slowly detached from the ground, and started to move vertically.

After a few minutes, they were off the ground.

The travel was spiced up by the group making small talk about irrelevant stuff, though one question did stand out:

"So, why didn't we bring Team JNPR with us?" Yang asked, "I thought they'd be going with us."

Ruby leaned closer to answer. "Don't you think it'd be dangerous to pull them in this? I mean, we're the ones with the most experience here, and we still manage to get our butt kicked some times."

"I guess that makes se-"

But that was the last piece of small talk they would have had in that airship.

As soon as the ice sheets of ice of the continent of Solitas became visible through the windows, the interior started to turn red.

And an alarm started to boom.

"W-Whoa! What is going on?!" Weiss looked around confused.

"Hey! Pilot! W-What's happening?!" Yang shouted, but nobody.

"W-We're having an unexpected malfunction! Please remain in your seats and do not panic!" Said the very much panicking pilot through the intercom of the airship.

But it only took a peek from outside to understand what was happening. They were losing altitude, and fast.

Ruby looked horrified "N-no...If this keeps up, we'll slam against the ice!"

Yang instinctively tried standing up, and was snapped back by the belt, which she quickly tried to undo, "What're we waiting for? Let's jump!"

Weiss snapped back at her, nervous and angry. "Jump from where?! We will just splat like bugs at this speed, no Aura can withstand that!"

She stumbled on her feet as she freed herself from the seatbelt.

"Crap crap crap crap!" Polnareff shouted, "This time there's no Mister Joestar to help us with the crash landing!"

"W-What do we-"

* * *

Josuke already couldn't stand it any more, he should have been in yet another class at that moment, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Eluding the guards and the security cameras he sneaked out of Atlas Academy.

However, he came to regret that almost immediately, after his great escape he found himself surrounded by absolutely nothing, just ice and snow.

He walked around for a lot of time tucked in that heavy brown coat. "Oh great, I'm lost...Achoo!" He sneezed, a simple coat unable to protect him from the piercing intense cold.

He looked behind his back, he couldn't even see the Academy any more, just where did he end up?

He sneezed again and looked up at the sky, and suddenly he heard a loud  _crash_ coming from north. He jumped back in surprise as he saw smoke rise in the distance and pieces of metal fly out. He was far away enough that he couldn't quite understand what it was, but he could imagine.

With a worried look he started running towards the wreckage with as much speed as he could muster, at the very least that run would have left his legs warm!

* * *

"O-Ow...I-is everyone all right?" Ruby pushed away a piece of the wreckage pressing against her back

Jotaro blinked as he slowly stood up, he was completely covered in pieces of metal and snow when he regained consciousness. He massaged his jaw slightly, hurting like hell. He turned around to look, Kakyoin, Polnareff, Blake, Yang and Weiss were up too, "Should be everyone."

"No, not everyone." Blake said with a bit of sadness as she looked inside the destroyed cockpit of the airship. The pilot laid dead inside, his neck bending unnaturally and his head bleedy profusely, he probably died on impact.

Yang punched the ground, "Can somebody tell me what the hell just  **happened!?** " Her hair almost turned fire as she asked that, her emotions taking the better of her.

Jotaro coughed "Calm the hell down, don't expend energy like that."

At his words the blonde slowly took a deep breath and calmed down, at least all of them had some sort of heavy coat on, or else they'd all have frozen already.

"It was sabotage, most likely." Blake spoke up, "In my experience in the….White Fang..." she started a bit hesitantly, but by the looks of the others was encouraged to continue: "Sabotaging a small airship like that does not take a lot of time, especially with a group doing it at the same time. It's probably that they first sabotaged it while we were in Vale, and after the malfunction was fixed they did the same thing while we were asleep or doing guard duty at the camp site. I don't know if t was a single agents or multiple, but it definitely required a heavy amount of coordination to pull off."

"Hngh...talk about fuckin dedication. Those cultists really don't want us getting to their hideout..." Polnareff coughed out a bit of blood, a few pieces of debris slashed his chest and were drawing a sizeable amount of blood.

"That just means we're getting closer." Kakyoin noted, "They hoped this would kill us all off, but they failed."

"Oh, no! The diary! Did anyone get the diary?" Ruby looked around. Blake quickly raised the book in her hand, showing it to everyone.

"Even if we have the diary there is still a problem...We don't know where we are. And there are no landmarks or any sort of villages around here, how are we going to find it even if we know where it is if we don't know where  _we_ are?"

Jotaro slowly detached himself from the group and stared blankly at the horizon, hands in his pockets. He squinted his eyes and blinked multiple times before speaking up, "Oy, either I'm starting to hallucinate, or that's Josuke right there."

As soon as he said that all eyes were on him, "Wha..Josuke? You're kidding me, right?" Ruby ran up to Jotaro and looked where he was looking. It did look like someone was running towards them, but there was no way to understand that it was really Jo-

She saw the pompadour, never mind, it really was Josuke.

He looked tired and out of breath, and every time he exhaled the air froze and became visible for a few seconds. He also seemed to have a runny nose.

"What's he doing out here? I thought he was supposed to stay in the Academy."

Josuke's figure became closer and closer, "H-Huh?! M-Mister Jotaro, Ruby! What the hell are you all doing in the middle of nowhere?!"

"We should be asking the same thing to you!"

"W-Well..." Josuke looked rather embarrassed, scratching the back of his head, "I kinda decided to skip class and...got lost."

"I...see…?" Ruby quirked an eyebrow, but decided that it was probably better if she didn't ask any further.

"Agh...Josuke! You have a healing Stand, right? How about you go help us!" The wounded Polnareff shouted, clutching at his wounds.

Josuke quickly nodded and rushed over to his help, and the others quickly surrounded him, asking him questions of all kind.

Everyone except Jotaro and Ruby.

He turned around and walked to the other side of the wreckage, towards north, and stared at the snow. Ruby quickly followed him, curious.

"Did you see some-"

On the ground laid tracks, fresh tracks. Small footprints like that of a child, going more and more north.

"This...can't be a coincidence..."

Both of them were thinking the same thing. Somehow there was another uninvited guest hidden inside the airship.

"I remember fighting against another one of those 'Guardian' controllers quite a while ago. I remember her being the same size of a child too." Jotaro admitted.

Ruby stepped forward, and took out Crescent Rose, keeping it rested on her shoulder, she had a sudden and confident air about her. "I think we know where to go now."

[To Be Continued]-->

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1. "Makir! This chapter feels kinda rushed!" I know, I know, I just didn't have a lot of time this week, I promise next chapter will have a lot more detail in it.


	56. Ice Ice Baby

The group made a little camp by the wreckage and made a little fire in order to keep themselves at least reasonably warm. They discussed with eachother and Josuke was caught up to date with their plan.

"So wait, were you serious when you said you got lost because you wanted to skip class?" Kakyoin couldn't help but ask.

Josuke seemed a little embarassed, and laughed a little, "Well...Who doesn't get lost from time to time?"

Well, it had been bothering him, actually. He remembered sneaking out of the Academy, but after that everything was a blank. He kept thinking about that strange dream he had, and the next thing he knew he was out in the open with nowhere to go.

Jotaro shook his head and decided to speak up, "Speaking of more important stuff, We need to move until the tracks grow cold. Literally."

Ruby stood up, holding up Crescent Rose in its rifle form. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's stop these Silver Records, we just need to land the finishing shot!"

Blake sighed slightly, eyes closed. "I think it's going to be a lot harder than just a finishing shot. Their base is going to be heavily fortified. And at the very least that other 'Hunter' is still active. We can't get cocky, once we do...well, it's all over for us."

"Voice of reason as ever, I see." Weiss stated approvingly.

* * *

They had been following those tracks for an hour in that freezing cold environment. But they just wouldn't end, they kept going and going.

That hour quickly turned into two, three hours of restless walking, more and more and more tracks. Whoever they belonged to didn't even attempt to hide their traces.

"A-Aaah….f-food..." Ruby fell on her knees dramatically, her stomach rumbling "My kingdom for some food!" She shouted up at the sky, a single tear rolling down her face.

Everyone, except Josuke who ate at the Academy, didn't eat anything from the moment they woke up, and all that walking didn't make it much better.

Yang laid down, face in the snow and mumbling something about beans. Weiss quickly grabbed her by the arm and dragged her along the snow. "You are just going to get sick this way." She stated, but Yang didn't seem like she could move a muscle.

"O-Oh God….I'm starting to hallucinate..." Polnareff blinked as he looked over in the horizon, and in the middle of a great pile of snow he could see an unnaturally large plate of Filet Mignon, and his mouth started to instinctively water. "H-Hey, Josuke's hair does not look half bad..."

Kakyoin shook him with urgency, "D-Damn it, we're losing him!"

"Guys, It's only been a few hours since we left…" Josuke muttered, utterly confused.

Jotaro tried to take another step, but his vision was getting blurrier. It had only been about half a day since they all last ate, but in that frozen void it felt like days passed.

Blake sighed, "I...didn't want to do this just yet...But the situation is too urgent." She produced something from her black coat, an unopened can of beans. "This is our only one, so be carefu-"

Ruby, in a hunger-fueled frenzy, used her semblance and swiped right past Blake, swiping the can. "If there are gods up there, thank you!"

Yang, seemingly fueled with fighting spirit, sprung up on her feet and ran up to her sister, "Hey, leave some for me!"

"O-Oh! Me too! Me too!" Polnareff ran up to them. And in a few seconds the three starving travelers scarfed down the entire can.

Jotaro….didn't look really pleased.

"H-huh….Sorry, I didn't think they'd act like that." Blake sighed.

"It's fine, I'm just gonna eat the fucking snow." He said without a hint of sarcasm.

* * *

After the beauty of five hours of walking they finally found the track's end, and….It led to absolutely nothing, ending abruptly.

"W-What? Were we led on?" Josuke asked, look at the ground and moving away the snow to find something. But he didn't find even the hint of a clue.

Ruby stepped past the end of the tracks and looked around. The snow was smooth and there was realistically no way someone could have been hiding in such an open place. "Hey! Jotaro! Help me out here!"

Jotaro nodded and stepped forward, and bonked his head on...something, and staggered backwards.

"What? Does this really seems like the time for joking around?" Weiss stated, growing more and more disgruntled.

"Oh come on, Weiss. He would never pull off a joke like this, he lacks any sort of humor!" Yang laughed slightly, looking back at him.

He shook his head and sighed, and reached his hand forward. His palm pressed against the air, he tried pushing forward, but he couldn't.

"Star Platinum!" He shouted. And promptly the long-haired warrior was summoned and punched against the 'wall'. The punch seemed to hit something, creating unnatural ripples in the air with every punch, like ripples in water.

Another punch in the same place, and another one, absolutely no effect.

Blake tried waving her hand in front of where Star punched, but her arm passed right through with no problem.

"Is...this some sort of spatial anomaly or something?" Josuke asked as he stepped forward, and just like Jotaro he could not pass through that invisible wall.

All Stand Users pressed their hands against the wall and tried pushing, bashing, stabbing, everything, nothing worked.

Jotaro slightly clutched at his head, the vision that he managed to ignore before became more and more intense, not any less clearer, just louder and heavier.

"What the hell is this?! Some anti-Stand shield?!" Josuke couldn't help but shout in anger. It was so frustrating seeing Team RWBY on the other side, and for some unknown reason being unable to pass.

"That...may be close. This energy..." Kakyoin commented, moving around his hand on the shield, "It's very similar to that of a Stand."

"What? Do you mean that one of those cultists have a Stand?" Ruby asked.

"It's possible, that's all we know, now we just need to find a way to get past this wall…."

The four looked at each other, not knowing what to do. A sudden thought sparked into Josuke's mind as Crazy Diamond touched the shield once again.

"What if…"

He used his restoring power on the 'shield', and suddenly…

The wall visibly seemed to disintegrate, like glass fracturing and floating upwards. Like a large vase breaking in reverse.

"W-Woah..."

"Huh?" Ruby tilted her head, looking at the surprised four with a hint of confusion. Yang placed a hand on her shoulder, a look of surprise on her face, "Sis...look."

She turned around, and she saw it. A large, imposing alabaster church appeared out of nothing right in front of them. Planted in the middle of the icy field. It had white and black engravings and symbols lining up its walls,.

Jotaro blinked and stepped forward, the wall was removed, even his visions started to die down. He looked over at Josuke, "What the hell did you just do?"

"I-I dunno, I guess I somehow...restored the wall into it's previous state?" He scratched the back of his head, he was as confused as anyone else in that situation. "The idea just kinda...popped up, and it worked."

"Hey, look!" Blake pointed at the ground, not only did the church appear, the tracks continued as well, and they arrived straight towards the church's closed door.

"I...don't think what I just took out was a wall at all, it was like...a veil, something that covered the existence of this building. That 'wall' was just a side effect of whatever distortion caused it. That's why nobody found them yet."

"Distortion?" Jotaro looked his way, Brick too mentioned that word in their fight. "What an oddly specific word."

Josuke looked more and more confused, "Uh….well, I guess it is." Why did he use that word? It seemed like the more they tried to answer questions, more popped up.

The group lined up together, staring up at the church. "Well, in any case, this is it. This is the Silver Record's base." Kakyoin stated, the feeling when they all lined up in front of the door, it felt like Deja Vu for Jotaro, Polnareff, and him. "It's like Dio's mansion all over again."

Jotaro smiled slightly, "Yeah, it does have that same stench of evil surrounding it."

"Once we enter here there will be no turning back." Ruby stated, a serious determined look on her face. "It's either us or them!"

"Come on, we trained for a situation like this! And now with that everyone's here, we can let hell break loose!" Yang exclaimed with a cocky smile.

Blake steadied her breath as she looked up, taking out her weapon "After everything we did to get here there's no point in turning back."

Weiss walked forward in front of the door, placing a hand "Are we ready?"

Everyone nodded, one after the other.

As Weiss pushed forward, the door of the church slowly creaked open.

_**Daaan. Daaan.** _

"The...bells of the church?" Jotaro looked upwards, but there were no bells on top of the church.

"Wait, look over there!" Yang pointed forward. Inside the church stood a little girl that looked about ten, with a way too big robe.

She stood in the middle of the church, looking at the group with a frown, "Grr...You're all so persistent! Not only do you not die when you have to, you also walk for miles just to follow some dumb tracks!"

"You...I remember you, you're the one that attacked us in that forest!" Kakyoin stepped forward, that was also the fight where he discovered the Emerald Cannon.

She yawned, "Wow, really? That was aaages ago, you still hold a grudge for that? What a bunch of losers."

Yang stepped forward, angry, "Where's everyone else, you little twerp?! We know this is your base!" She lock and loaded her gauntlets and started running forward, shouting menacingly.

The young girl smirked, pushing her hand forward.

Jotaro's eyes widened, realizing what she was about to do. His legs sprung into action and he started running towards Yang, "Wait, no!"

All in vain. A sudden black and red pillar appeared in front of the girl and pushed Yang back, and in less than a second that pillar twisted into a monstrous shape, a four headed snake-like monster. Each of the heads was of a different color: red, white, black, yellow. The monstrosity scraped the roof of the church, and the snake heads hissed menacingly.

She smirked, "Don't think it'll be as easy as last time."

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. The color scheme of the snake heads was originally going to be red, white, GREEN, yellow. (For reasons you'll all see in the next chapter.) But after noticing the accidental color pattern I decided to change it to black.


	57. The Snake Emperor

The yellow head of the giant snake Guardian hissed and opened its mouth, and a bolt of electricity shot out of it and hit Yang square in the chest. With a grunt she flew backwards and smashed against one of the benches.

"Yang!" Ruby flew like a red bullet towards her sister, standing in front of her with her scythe ready, "A-Are you okay?!"

She used a big plank of wood that used to be the bench to stand up, she looked a little bit bruised and angry, but nothing else.

The little girl giggled, sitting on the back of the four headed Grimm, "Oh, by the way, my name's Anguis." She looked over at the rest of the group, "And I can't wait till I kill you all, especially you." She pointed a dainty little finger at Josuke, smirking.

The snake stood right in front of the far back of the room and didn't seem too keen on moving away from it.

Weiss and Blake rushed towards the enemy with their weapons, at the ready, but the snake didn't even bother looking their way. The black head looked over at Josuke and opened its mouth, and a globe of dark, fuming liquid started to form.

"W-What the?!" Crazy Diamond punched the ground, re-formed the flying pieces of alabaster rock and formed it into a shield right in front of him as soon as the black globe was shot towards him. The globe impacted against the wall, coating it with the unknown substance.

In less than a second, the wall began dissolving into a molten mess, destroying the shield completely.

"Acid!" Josuke shouted, stepping back in surprise. He steadied his breath and went into a fighting stance, running towards Yang.

"Don't let that hit you! If that thing can dissolve rocks it sure as hell can dissolve bones!" Polnareff shouted, summoning his Stand.

"Hya!" Blake shot the black rope hidden within her weapon and wrapped it around the yellow head. She flung herself upwards with her sharpened scabbard and katana at the ready. In just a few seconds she was in mid air at the same level as the head, and began raining down slashes mercilessly, one after the other the blades clashed down on top of the scales.

The black and red head turned towards her and tried to bite her, but as soon as they did she landed on top of the head and jumped backwards, leaving behind a black-and-red unstable looking decoy.

As soon as the three heads converged the decoy exploded beautifully. The loud hissing noise that resulted was intense. She landed on the ground and looked up as soon as the dust settled, the Guardian looked slightly battered, but not even close to defeated.

Anguis snickered, she was completely relaxed, the attack not fazing her in the least "Oooh, fireworks!"

Josuke sprinted bast Yang and healed her wounds in a flash, and then he kept running and running.

"Hey, where are you going?!" Jotaro shouted, "You're gonna slam against the wall, dumbass!"

"I have a plan! Just...try not to die while I'm out!" Josuke shouted at the wind as Crazy Diamond smashed clean through the wall and ran outside the church, and then promptly closed the hole in the wall up in less than a few seconds.

Anguis shook her head, disappointed. "Oh well, 'guess I'll have to kill off you losers first."

The heads wandered around and looked over at the scattered bunch and opened their mouths all at once. The red and white one looked their left, and the black and yellow heads looked to their right.

Ruby shot the ground and used the recoil of the bullet to jump towards the red head and was almost scorched by a jet of flames coming from the mouth of the Guardian. She leaped past the head and placed her foot at the wall furthest back from the entrance, right behind Anguis, and she did not look.

At the same time, Star Platinum grabbed a church bench and with a loud "OOORAA!" threw it forward. But that wasn't for the snake, or at least, not directly. Yang jumped perfectly on top of the flying bench like it was some sort of surf board, and it shot upwards in the air like a small rocket headed straight for the Guardian. She pulled her arm back as her long blond hair flew out of control by the sheer speed she was accumulating. Her fists smacked against the white head and the black head, cracking their natural armor. The wild woman gripped her hand on top of the white head's face. She was about to rain another blow with a crooked smile before being suddenly pushed back and smacking against the ground for the second time in that fight.

"H-Huh?!" Her front was covered by a thin layer of ice, and her body felt...slowed down, she tried moving her arms and legs, but she couldn't. She was being pinned to the ground.

The red snake head instantly coiled around Anguis to protect her, hissing menacingly up at Ruby as she bounced back like a tennis ball, with her scythe in her hand she raised it up and slammed it on the forehead of the enemy. The sheer force of the hit sent some superficial scales of the Grimm flying, but the red head didn't pass on the opportunity to attack. It lunged upwards and shook Ruby off of it.

"Woah!" Ruby was free falling before the head bit her leg and she was left dangling down from its mouth, her aura protected her from arm, but it wasn't going to hold for long. "S-Some help would be appreciated!" she shouted, her scythe slipping from her hand and falling on top of the altar.

"Emerald Cannon!" Kakyoin shouted, Hierophant flew upwards, dangerously close to the Grimm and wandered behind it, shooting the large projectile and struck inside the red head's mouth, trying to free Ruby. The shot hit the fiery head in the eye, and it made it writhe around and hiss in anger, swinging Ruby from side to side violently.

"Aa-aa-aah!" She felt like she was going to puke any second at that point, it didn't help that it felt like her leg was about to be ripped off. She accidentally smacked against Hierophant's head, and at that speed it wasn't exactly a light hit.

Kakyoin stumbled backwards and pulled back, despite bleeding from the side of his head and feeling like he got a severe concussion he brought himself to his feet and started running. "Don't stop moving! Just don't let that thing get you!"

The yellow and black head kept the others busy, shooting out bolts of electricity and globes of black acid everywhere.

Polnareff ran on top of the benches, jumping from one row to the next, there was no way a close-range Stand user like him could hit that thing without risking losing an arm or a leg, needless to say he didn't take that risk.

Weiss ran right in front of him, her rapier in hand "Hey! Come here, I will throw you!"

"E-Excuse me?" he said, jumping another row. Weiss sighed and without adding anything further grabbed him by the arm, and using all of the strength in her body lifted the man up over her head. It was quite the sight: a dainty teenage girl lifting a grown man that had what was probably thrice her muscle mass.

"Get your Stand out!" She shouted the order before flinging the helpless Frenchman towards the Grimm like a javelin.

"AAAAAAAAH! WHY MEEEE?!"

Silver Chariot, equally as scared as its user, placed itself right in front of him with its weapon pointed forward. Polnareff gripped on Silver Chariot's waist and braced himself for impact.

The thin silver sword pierced and sliced clean off the yellow head's left eye, cleaving it open so intensely all that remained was giant empty hole that was oozing black liquid.

The church was filled with intense,  **angry** hisses. While the yellow head writhed in pain the red head flung ruby away, slam her against the ground.

"Oof! Ouch! Ow!" Her back smashed through several church benches before stopping on the ground, battered.

"Ruby!" Yang finally broke her icy restraints and ran up against her sister, she held her up and shook her. She was half passed out.

Polnareff suffered a similar fate, being flung across the room and smashing against a wall. He coughed slightly, spitting out blood as he stood up, "Damn it, this thing's fucking implacable."

The red snake uncoiled itself from Anguis, revealing herself to the group. "UGH! You're all just so annoying! Just drop dead already! "

The enraged black head quickly spat acid randomly, and by chance caught Jotaro right on the leg. He was trying to wait for the best opporunity to attack directly with Star Platinum, and the results of the acid...weren't pleasant.

He screamed in pain as the acid melted his pants and burned his flesh. The acid started to dissolve the muscle itself, and the bone was starting to become visible. He gritted his teeth as he kneeled over. "Haagh...S-shit..."

The angry expression of Anguis turned into one of pure smugness. "Hehe, one down, finally!" she declared her victory early, and began charging up all of the Grimm's attack, intending to direct all of them to Jotaro, who was standing right in the open. Nobody could have gotten there in time to protect him, or so they all thought at that moment.

A sudden low, menacing rumble came from the ceiling.

[To Be Continued]-->


	58. The Snake Emperor Pt.2

" **Hisssssss.** "

The four heads stopped their attack and quickly looked upwards at the ceiling of the church.

_**THUD. THUD.** _

That part of the ceiling suddenly gave in on itself and collapsed. Chunks of rock hit the snake in the head like drops of water in the rain. Anguis suddenly stood up and hissed like a snake. "What the hell is this?!"

A long wooden piece of the foundation fell down and struck the flaming red head in the eye. The piece shattered the left iris and pierced it so badly it went from one eye and out the other. The head writhed and screamed before falling down, dead. One of four down.

"A...ah…?" Jotaro looked up confused and still gripped on his wounded leg. A figure jumped down the ceiling, landing on top of the dead snake head and started running towards him at full speed. It was Josuke, wearing a smug grin on his face.

"You didn't run!" Blake exclaimed.

"Of course I didn't!" He slid on the ground and summoned Crazy Diamond, in the span of less than one second the Stand touched Jotaro's leg and instantly restored it to a previous state, the pants too were completely fixed.

Kakyoin ran over to Jotaro and quickly helped him up, before turning to Josuke "Was your whole grand plan busting through the ceiling at the right time?"

Josuke pointed at Kakyoin and jumped back on his feet after sliding like a wannabe rock star. "Hey, Rule of cool! As long as it looks badass, it's justified!"

Anguis looked pissed, her ears red and almost fuming with anger, "How  _ **FUCKING**_ DARE YOU?!"

Ice bolts and rays of electricity rained down from above, forcing the group to split up. Team RWBY and the Stand Users did everything they could to make the giant Guardian stagger. Bullets, various objects found on the ground, but the remaining three heads didn't even flinch.

Yang crossed her arms and blocked the storm of ice shards, throwing away the near unconscious Ruby out of the attack's range. "Give it up already! You can't beat us!"

Soon after saying those words a glob of black acid flew towards her at high speed. Her eyes widened as she blocked it...And turned Ember Celica into a golden molten mess on the ground, only barely having protected her skin. She laughed awkwardly as she stared of what remained of her weapon. "Or...Maybe you can!"

Jotaro grabbed Ruby and, after dodging a ray of electricity and backing up against a wall, helped her up on her feet, "Oy, you can still fight, right?"

She looked at him with a dazed expression. She blinked as she processed his words and nodded, wearing again that determined look. "I...got a plan."

She slithered out of Jotaro's grip and started running like mad towards the Guardian, "Cover for me!"

"Hey, Josuke! A little help here?" she said, showing off the melted gauntlets to him. He dashed over a broken bench and quickly fixed Ember Celica. He coughed a little, out of breath from all the running.

She patted him on the back after she was again armed and ready, "It's okay big boy, you can take it easy for now."

With agility she reloaded the shot-gauntlets and began pelting the Grimm with exploding bullets. But the scales of the beast seemed tougher than steel. If what Jotaro told them was true the fact that that Guardian was so strong was a testament to how many people Anguis mercilessly slaughtered as 'sacrifices'.

_Huh._  Yang suddenly thought,  _That word has been coming up a lot._

Kakyoin and Blake also helped out in distracting the beast with bullets, but it seemed it had as much of an effect as a fly trying to annoy an elephant. The Grimm shrugged off the bullet and concentrated its attention to Ruby, who was trying to get around it.

The yellow head leaned down and lunged forward, trying to bite her. Her body exploded in a storm of rose petals as she activated her Semblance, zig-zagging around the head and turning back to normal. The black head was right behind it however, and it opened its mouth, very much intending to lunge and swallow Ruby whole.

Suddenly, Weiss rushed in front of Ruby and conjured a glyph in front of her. The head smacked against the glyph and was deflected, hissing as it flinched back. "Go!" She shouted, jumping back.

Ruby could feel her heart pumping like crazy and her legs growing tired. She turned around and once again one of the colored heads wrapped around Anguis to defend her. She could see it clearly, Crescent Rose laying perfectly on the altar!

She swooped in and grabbed it, her breathing became heavier and at that point she really felt like she was going to go limp any second. But she had to do it, it was either that or death.

She switched the regular bullets with special bullets infused with Gravity Dust. She smirked weekly as she looked trough the scope and pointed it at the black head, purposefully baiting it.  _C'moon...Spit!_

The black head took the bait and spat out its disgusting dark acid towards her. She held her breath a she pulled the trigger with all her strength. As the bullet was shot out the handle of the scythe smashed right on her chest from the immense recoil the artificial gravity of the bullet generated, it wasn't the good kind of recoil either. She flew back towards the altar and crashed against it, letting out a pained cough as the stone altar broke into pieces.

The black Gravity bullet flew towards the incoming acid, got closer, closer….And flew past it. Everyone close to the scene, namely Yang, Weiss and Jotaro, nearly had a heart attack right at that moment.

And maybe they would have had one for real, if it wasn't for the fact that the globe of acid was attracted by the bullets and started to fly backwards towards it. The bullet hit the head and lodged between the scales, but that was merely scratch damage compared to what was to come.

The acid splashed across the same head that it was shot out of. The scales started to quickly melt down, its own weapon turned against it. The snake head's hisses slowed down to a crawl as the acid melted it to its bones, and only the blackened skeleton remained after just a few seconds.

Anguis screamed, writhing around while the other heads coiled around her and protected her. They slowly unfolded, and she quickly jumped down her Guardian's back "I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" she creamed, her eyes dark and pulsing with red, she was completely enveloped by madness. The two remaining heads wrapped around her and around themselves

Suddenly, both she and the Grimm were covered in a pillar of unholy light while her screams echoed inside the church.

"N-no!" Ruby shouted weakly, it was just like the 'insider' in Vale, she was fusing with her own guardian!

"What the hell is happening NOW?!" Josuke shouted, as if enough weird stuff happened already!

* * *

 

The Master looked at the screen, tapping his finger on the comfortable throne he was sitting on. The camera hidden inside the church was cracked, but some parts of the fight were still visible. He squinted, not looking at Anguis giving in to despair, but looking at the altar. It was pushed back by Ruby's body, and surely they would have realized any second that the entrance was hidden under there.

He tapped a button and leaned in close to the microphone. "Attention to all believers: Grab your weapons and get to your assigned defensive positions. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill."

He looked at the other screens and smiled slightly, all the believers of the Silver Records were doing their duty as said, they ran and grabbed rifles, pistols, swords, lances, whatever weapon was available.

He lost all faith in Anguis winning, she had already lost when she decided to do everything by herself and unintentionally led them to their hideout. It was already time

He looked up at the ceiling and slowly took off his cloak. His long blond hair reached up to his shoulders. He felt so...alone. "Fiore, I'm sorry that I won't be able to reach you Mistral. But I, Bronzo Argento, belong in here, and I will defend the Records 'till my last breath."

 

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Here's a little question for the readers that came this far in the story: What do you think of the original villains? And which one, if any, would you say is your favorite?


	59. Under The Unholy Altar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning: From here on out there's most probably going to be (very minor) spoilers of Volume 5. Not of anything that happens IN the Volume, but rather background information revealed during the Volume. If some Remnant lore related information does not make sense or ring a bell it's probably because you haven't catched up to the series. Either that or I'm making stuff up again. One of the two.

James Ironwood sat at his Headmaster's desk, tapping his finger impatiently as he stared at what first seemed absolutely nothing. But soon enough, what he actually expected came. An holographic-like screen appeared on the desk, and it displayed Professor Ozpin, staring back.

"Good day, James. What did you wish to speak to me about?"

Ironwood collected his thoughts, "Did you think about my idea?"

"James..." Ozpin sighed, shaking his head "Your heart is in the right place, but it's just...not possible, we have no idea how an experiment like that could possibly go."

"But we have to try!" He exclaimed, "We saw how the enemy can mass produce those Stands, and slip right past our regular defences. If we managed to create Huntsmen and Huntresses with inherent Stands, we'd be on an equal playing field!"

He was getting heated up, it was an idea he thought to himself again and again before taking up Josuke, he just had to get Ozpin's permission. "If we allow them to catch us off guard, they'll snatch the Relics from us, and who the hell knows what will happen then!"

"Without the Maiden's powers it's impossible to get the relics, Stand Users or not." He refuted, "I'm sorry James, but I fear I must repeat myself: No, I will not allow you to go through with this project."

That refusal felt like a bullet hitting his chest, he wanted to speak up and convince him, but the door suddenly opened.

An Atlas guard rushed inside, she took a deep breath, her face red from exhaustion. "Sir! We can't find Josuke Higashikata anywhere!"

Ironwood's face tensed up in a mix of shock and worry, before he knew it he stood up from his chair and shouted: "What?!"

* * *

The light slowly fade out and a new form arose in place of the Guardian. With the gigantic, slithering bottom of a snake and the relatively much smaller body of Anguis. Her body was a mixture of all the colors of the Snake Guardian: red, white, black, yellow. The Fused Guardian acted feral, and what was once Anguis slithered out a forked tongue and hissed in pure anger and hatred.

Her bare torso was covered in...mouths, small mouths that covered her entire body like scars that opened and closed rhythmically. She was too far gone, she wasn't human in any sense of the word.

"D-Dude...no way..." Polnareff stared in awe, his entire body just couldn't move, he was stuck.

"Damn it, we don't have time for this!" Josuke shouted, "For all we know those cultists are already taking some hidden escape route and bolting the hell out of here! We only have one chance in doing this!

"A-Ah...ah..." Ruby felt out of breath, the impact against the altar pushed out all the air in her lungs. The altar moved more as she leaned against it, and suddenly…

She lost all support on her back, and feel, "W-Woaaaaa-!" She fell on the hole that was hidden under the altar, along with Crescent Rose. And just like that she dissapeared from everyone's sight.

"Oh crap." Jotaro muttered under his breath. His legs sprung into action and he ran forward towards the altar.

Anguis hissed and lunged at him, reaching out her arms towards him. The mouths on her body opened wide as if waiting for their next meal. Her body, before so small and minute, now dwarfed Jotaro in height.

Jotaro pointed forward and Star Platinum appeared in front of him, fists of steel clenched up and ready to go off. "STAR PLATINUM. THE WORLD!"

Time halted to a crawl. Star Platinum landed a solid punch to her chin. The punch seemed to deform at first, before stopping. In those few remaining seconds he had he slipped past her and began running.

In the span of an instant, Anguis let out a cry of pain as she was punched back, a few pointy teeth falling out of her main mouth. She held her hand over her mouth, looking dazed.

Jotaro jumped down the hole under the altar without a hint of hesitation.

"J-Jotaro! Wait, you dumbass!" Polnareff shouted, for all he knew he could have fallen right into a spiked pit.

Yang grabbed Josuke by the arm and ran at top speed with a fiery look in her eyes. "Hey hey hey hey! Why me?!"

Yang simply...walked past the stunned Fused Guardian, one might have thought they'd have to parkour or sneak past her, but she was so in pain that she kept looking down at her bloodied mouth for a good few minutes "Because you're the only one that can heal them if they're hurt! Now let's get going!"

"Okay okay fine just stop dragging me arouOUUUUNND!" He started screaming as he felt his body being pushed down by gravity into the hole, this was gonna suck.

"Let's go!" Blake shouted as she started running. Polnareff and Kakyoin started running. Blake and Kakyoin arrived right next to the hole, but….Weiss stayed behind, Myrtentaster in hand.

"I...cannot leave this this thing roaming around, who knows what kind of mess it could create! Go ahead without me!"

"W-What?! Alone?!" Polnareff shouted, impressed by her courage.

Weiss gave both her companions and the beast in front of her one of the most smug smirks around, "I think I can handle a pushover like that by myself."

"Oh hell no!" Polnareff stepped back, and stood right beside her. Silver Chariot twirling its sword around theatrically, "If you're staying to fight this thing, then I'm staying too!"

"But..." Blake raised a hand forward in order to convince them of other wise. But suddenly, the ground began to shake as Anguis began violently trashing about, screaming bloody murder.

"Time to go, good luck. Break a leg!" Kakyoin placed a hand against Blake's shoulder and slowly pushed her off the ledge of the hole along with himself.

And just like that, only three remained inside the church.

Anguis's screams began to turn more acute, all of the mouths in her body vomiting fire, ice, acid, bolts of lightning at the same time. She was all of the colored heads combined into one disgusting, intimidating body.

Silver Chariot pointed the rapier forward, coordinated with Weiss. "Okay, in hindsight this may have been a stupid idea."

* * *

Before they even realized it, Ruby felt a lot of weight on her body….like, several people worth weight. She looked up slightly, and noticed that Jotaro, Yang, Josuke, Blake and Kakyoin were stacked in a pile of half-dazed bodies. "U-Uuh…." Yep, this was it, this was how she was going to die, surrounded by her friends. Literally. Goodbye cruel world, this rose was too delicate for you.

But it wasn't yet her time, a few broken broken bones aside. She slithered out of the pile and took some deep breaths, she had been having some trouble breathing. "O-Oh no..." she coughed once or twice, "I think a my lung is pie-"

Josuke's shaking hand grabbed Ruby's boot and in a heartbeat all that pain was gone.

"G-Guys? You're gonna get up any time soon?"

"F-Five seconds..." Yang muttered as her face was planted on Jotaro's back. They all looked incredibly exhausted.

She shook her head and sighed as stood up, grabbing Crescent Rose off the ground. She examined her surroundings. They were in a cylindrical room covered by brick walls and, to her dismay, stairs. Oh well, it's not like she  _wanted_ to go down there. She peered behind her, and saw a double-sized metal door, closed with several different locks

Jotaro stood up, letting out a cough, "This must be the true entrance of their base. We're deep in enemy territory here."

As soon as everyone came back to their senses and stood up, he walked up the door and with a flurry of " **ORA** " smashed the door open with Star Platinum, turning it into little more than scrap metal, that was to be expected.

What he didn't expect, however, was to be pointed point-blank by a Dust-powered gun right in the forehead.

The stern-faced cultist shouted: "It's the intruders! Kill 'em!"

"Emerald Splash!"

The splash of green bullets hit the cultist upside the head, and with an "Unf!" he was pushed back.

Star Platinum then proceeded to grab the back of his head and slam him to the ground, knocking him unconscious.

Ruby stepped forward, weapon ready as she stepped into the stark-white hallway. She, along with everyone else, could hear the sound of movements coming their way. She reloaded Crescent Rose.

"I guess it's a full on battle from here on out."

[To Be Continued]-->


	60. Silver Assault

Silver Chariot lunged upwards with its rapier raised forward, but the transformed Anguis quickly punched the armored Stand in the face with incredible power, pushing it back.

Anguis's eyes seemed to almost flame with an immense amount of hatred and malicious intent. The regular Grimm they had been fighting up until that point seemed tame by comparison " **Hissssss!** "

Polnareff shivered "T-That anger...it's not natural, this thing needs to be put down!"

Then right after glyphs started uppearing under Weiss's steps as she ran forward, picking up speed and momentum. She jumped up as soon as several bolts of lightning aimed at her went out of Anguis's body. The revolving chamber in Myrtentaster started to turn. If Weiss looked down to check and stop the chamber she would have surely been hit, so she had to leave it up to chance. It was a gambit: if the chamber landed on the wrong type of dust at the wrong time she could have risked a whole lot more than just missing her target, considering how close she had to get. Like a high-risk roulette.

She jumped up and heard a familiar  _click_ coming from the chamber. Anguis raised her hand to swipe at her, but Weiss's movements were too fast, she pointed her weapon forward and aimed at her torso. She could see the glint of her blade letting out a little flame, but she was distracted by something far more unexpected:

As soon as the blade got near the torso one of the mouths opened up and bit down on the blade of Myrtentaster, stopping Weiss and her attack on their tracks!

She gasped, "Wha-"

Anguis's scaled hand smashed against Weiss's body against the ground like she was a basketball Her hand lost grip of the hilt of the sword, and maybe she imagined it, but it was like all those unnatural mouths were smiling at her after stealing her weapon. She coughed in pain, looking up and pressing her hands against the ground in an attempt to stand up.

The Grimm's long scaled tail started to circle incredibly quickly around Weiss, threatening of wrapping around her and constrict her like a python.

Polnareff hid behind pieces of debris from the fallen roof, breathing heavily and nervously. "Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit…." He imprecated over and over. He was paralyzed as he stared at the scene. He had to do  _something_. But he couldn't risk getting his Stand too close to the thing, a few swipes, jets of fire, ice bullets and thunder bolts he could withstand, but if that black acid hit him his armor would melt down, along with his internal organs.

He just wished his Stand had a long range attack that didn't involve breaking his sword.

And just like that, it was like a lightbulb turned on inside his brain. He fished around the back of his pockets, and found exactly what he was looking for…

Weiss's body was frozen in surprise, what could she do at that moment? She didn't have her weapon and she couldn't concentrate enough to create glyphs. Her eyes instinctively closed, bracing herself for the attack.

But just before Anguis could wrap her tail around her she suddenly retched back in pain. And then again, bolts of fire hit her in the head as quickly as bullets from a semi-automatic gun.

She opened her eyes, her eyes darting over to the source of the attack, "Polnareff?!"

Polnareff stood on top of the rubble and then jumped forward, running in a zig-zag pattern towards Anguis. Silver Chariot's rapier was burning from what was, unmistakable for her, fire dust. Silver chariot swung its sword again and again, more small balls of fire slipping out of the tip of the rapier and flying towards the snake girl.

The air burned around the fire balls and they quickly expanded into the size of tennis balls and smashed against Anguis.

"Weiss, let me tell ya, your company creates some pretty fantastic products!" He grinned, holding up a vial of red dust with the logo of the Schnee compan in one hand, "I might get addicted to this new style of fightin'!"

Weiss smirked before cartwheeling away from the snake, "Next time at least bother to buy them, instead of stealing them from my belongings."

She jumped forward, using a mid-air glyph as a platform, and stepped on the snake girl's torso, holding onto the hilt of Myrtentaster. But instead of pulling it closer to her she pulled inside more, and activated the dust within.

The agonized screams of the fused Guardian became even more intense as the fire burned one of the mouths, turning the tongue to ash in seconds. Then, she pulled it out, and with an elegant pirouette landed on the ground.

Polnareff poured more dust on the Stand's sword, running over to her as Anguis shook her head and quickly regained her senses, hissing and shooting an electrical beam out of its only human mouth directed at Weiss.

Polnareff ran between Weiss and the electrical beam. Silver Chariot was hit in the back, and the armor was slightly battered.

Polnareff shouted: "Hey, don't pose just yet, save that for the end of the battle!"

* * *

Meanwhile:

Yang ran forward as she tanked the hail of bullets coming from the other side of the room, her yellow Aura deflecting them as soon as they attempted to hit her. The room, once a sort of jail lined with empty cells and, more disgusting, cells filled with Grimm chained to walls. The creatures of Grimm often died in captivity, but somehow the cultists of the Silver Records could keep them alive.

Right then, however, the room was turned into a barricade with toppled over furniture serving as cover for the cultists.

Yang jumped up a couple of meters ahead, raised her fist upwards and slammed her fist against the ground after soaring over the barricade. "ORA!"

The cultists let out cries of surprise and fear as they were sent flying along with the furniture and were knocked out cold. The shockwave from the punch was so strong that it felt like a strong, if quick, earthquake.

"Oy, since when did you start stealing that?" Jotaro said as he blocked an attacking cultist's sword slash by grabbing his wrist with his hand before Star Platinum's fist bashed against the side of his head. The cultist let out a 'Guh!' as the punch pierced his rather feeble Aura and made his forehead bleed, he was knocked out instantly.

Yang kicked away an incoming cultist's spear, making it fall on the ground before she quickly and roughly decked him. "It's just so catchy! Can't blame a gal from taking some inspirations, right?"

"Once we're out of here I'm going to sue you." He joked, though his deadpan tone of voice made him sound incredibly serious.

Yang giggled as she nonchalantly rammed two goons head together, knocking them out, "Still, didn't think a cult hidden in the middle of nowhere would have all these members. Guys, girls, there's even some Faunus here."

"There's certainly something that would attract people here and gives them those 'guardians', all those sacrifices must be to something or someone." He noted.

Just as he finished saying that, he noticed something out of the corner of his eyes, a green tail flew past him, and he heard a familiar voice, "Jotaro? Are you here? I can't exactly see through my Stand." The voice came out of Hierophant Green, who seemingly crawled all the way to Jotaro.

"Yeah, we're here, what's the problem, Kakyoin?"

"Me and Josuke found some sort of elevator that seems to go way down. It was one of the most protected rooms we found yet, it has to be something important. Just wanted to let you know."

"All right." He simply stated, "Now go back before someone tries to cut off your tail."

Hierophant nodded and like an elastic band snapped back at the speed of sound.

"Well, we know where those two are.." Yang started, blocking with the gauntlet the predictable scimitar attack to his back, "But where in the world are Ruby and Blake?! I haven't seen 'em since we split up!"

* * *

"Well, this isn't ominous in the least..." Blake muttered, looking at the imposing five meter tall black door right in front.

"Should we enter just yet? This feels very...final boss-y." Ruby commented and ran her palm onto the cold, dark stone.

But before the dark-haired Faunus could speak her mind the door opened on its own, and the scene that followed suit was too...eye-catching to ignore.

Rows and rows of stone and wooden benches lined the area, similar to a cathedral, but more like a stadium in design. And beyong those benches laid a silver throne with velvet cushions, with several holographic screens surrounding it. There a hooded man sat, looking at the two.

The fact that nobody else was in the room, and that beyond the throne laid nothing but a bottomless pit, caused incredible dread to the two young girls.

The hooded man grabbed the hood, and drammatically took it off. His skin was dark and bronzed, and his long blond hair, bordering on the white, reached his back. His voice was deep and rocky, but somewhat dignified: "It seems this encounter was inevitable."

The screens floated around him, before flickering out as he stood up. "I am the Master of the Silver Records. My name is Bronzo Argento."

[To be Continued]-->


	61. SIlver Rumble

Polnareff tumbled backwards as shards of ice hit his body and propelled him backwards. He coughed as he quickly scrambled to stand up. "We need to end this, and quick!"

Anguis's face was half burned from the fireballs. But her body didn't show signs of slowing down or stopping. She had incredible endurance and pain threshold….that is if she could even feel pain.

"I am SO sick of these stupid snakes inside these stupid churches!" Weiss let out a groan of pure frustration.

Anguis turned around abruptly and tried slamming her tail against the heiress. She jumpjed over the tail as she suddenly heard Polnareff shout:

"Oy, Weiss! You know what's better than one sword?"

She gave him a confused look. Was it really time to make questions like that? "Uh...two swords?" she replied without really thinking about it much.

But to her surprise, Polnareff locked shocked at her answer. "Great minds think alike!" He grinned as Silver Chariot bended its shoulder back while gripping tight on the flaming rapier, and then threw it at her!

Weiss smirked, she would have never admitted it, but since the first time she saw that Stand she wanted to do something like that. She jumped upwards, grabbed the stand's weapon in mid-air and with a twirl pointed both sword downwards towards the snake woman.

She opened her mouth in an attempt to shoot something out of it, but it was already too late. Weiss stepped on her neck and stabbed through her main mouth, the tips ending up at the other side of the head.

Half of the snake-woman's upper body started to be covered in nasty burning scars while the other half started being covered in the ice inside Myrtentaster, both halves quickly covering her entire body like a plague. She screamed and screamed until Weiss moved the two swords in opposite directions, and then she screamed no more…

Her head fractured in a thousand burning and icy pieces and the rest of her body stopped moving, dead. Her body evaporated into smoke, and Weiss fell down to the ground.

She knelt over right after going back on the ground, breathing heavily. "That...took way, way too long..." she complained.

Polnareff looked conflicted if he should have felt relieved or absolutely terrified at that moment. "Ho...ly crap. Yeah, two swords are  _definitely_  better than one."

* * *

The elevator slowly rumbled as it moved downwards. It was not one of those comfy elevators with cushions, it was more similar to a mineshaft: stripped to the bare essentials and looked like it could fall apart at any moment

"This elevator's taking a while..." Josuke stated, moving around awkwardly inside the elevator that was clearly meant more to transport one person at a time. "I feel like I'm going at the core of the planet or something."

"Well, I imagined the planet's core to be a bit more...hot." Kakyoin suddenly shivered, "But the more we're going down the more I feel chills….This is not a good sign." It was the kind of chills one would get when their guts tells them there was something very very wrong inside that place.

The elevator stopped without a sign, and the ragged up metal doors slowly opened. What laid beyond was completely dark. A darkness so thick not even night vision goggles wouldn't have helped.

Kakyoin hesitantly stepped forward and attempted to step out of the elevator….and promptly bonked his head on what seemed like an invisible wall.

"Ouch! Damn it..." he cussed under his breath, rubbing his hand on the bruised forehead. "This again...is this some sort of defensive mechanism?"

"Only us Stand Users can touch it...and to everyone else it 'masks' reality." Josuke analysed, "Yeah, it's definitely the same thing that covered up the hideout. And call me crazy, but..." He stepped forward and immediately Crazy Diamond's hand reached out and touched the invisible wall, pressing his palm against it. "I think this...is the work of a Stand."

"A...Stand?" Kakyoin repeated, kind of baffled. "But the diary didn't mention anything about Stands."

Josuke blinked and looked at him with a blank confused expression on his face.

Kakyoin sighed, "Right, I forgot I was the only one that read the diary while we were getting here. The basic gist of what I got from the diary is that The Silver Records are some sort of...guardian deity that the cult's Master found hidden within ruins of the Great War during an excavation. An archaeologist to the leader of a cult..."

"Wait wait wait, hold up. Whaddya mean 'found'? How can you 'find' a guardian deity?"

"Well, apparently these Silver Records are also objects. They're big silver disks, that's how the diary describes them. It didn't go into great details about how the thing works, but apparently needs a lot of blood as a sacrifice."

"Big...silver disks?" Josuke's eyes lit up in realization. "Holy crap! I saw it once in a dream! It talked to me too!"

"Wait...you're trying to tell me it contacted you in a dream? That's...new." Kakyoin stated, the diary did not mention anything of the sort.

"Yeah, he thought I was..." He tried to remember the exact wording, he tried pretty hard to repress that dream. "An….'Active Threat'."

Kakyoin shook his head. "Let's save this discussion for later. The point is is that the diary didn't mention anything about Stand Users."

"If you say so. One thing's certain, though." Josuke restored the invisible wall to nothing, and the darkness was suddenly cleared. "My Stand can 'restore' these distortions."

What they saw beyond that was…

Four floating disks, moving erratically but rhythmically. It was like a wild dance: lots of movements without actually going anywhere. The objects were oozing blood that dripped from it like they just went out of a bathtub full of the red liquid.

The hollow centre of the disk lit up with a menacing red. Looking, no,  _staring_  at Josuke.

Josuke jumped back a little. "This…. _thing_ is their guardian deity?"

* * *

Bronzo stepped forward, passing by the rows of stone benches and walked up to the two. They instinctively took a defensive stance, staring intently at him. "It's truly a shame it has to end like this. For either of us." he said in a melancholic tone.

"I have a question." Rose stepped forward, holding Crescent Rose on her shoulder. She looked angry, and rightfully so: she was right in front of the leader of a cult that ended the life of so many people all across Remnant, it made her blood boil. "Why did you kill so many people? What's the purpose behind this group?!"

"Ruby...Don't get so heated up!" Blake shouted, grabbing her by the shoulder, "If you lash out on feelings alone you'll just get hurt!"

Bronzo, however, didn't seem like he was looking for a fight. He sat on one of the benches, his back turned to the two Huntresses. "Two major creatures haunt these lands like a plague. Humans, and Grimms. But even though we survive, we never 'live', we hide in small patches of lands haunted by constant inn-fighting, while the Grimm destroy anyone that goes beyond those small safe havens. That...is because humanity is weak."

Ruby took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves "Where are you going with this?" Her voice shook a little as she asked that.

"My goal...is to create a 'third race', one that can truly live without fears or worry, a creature that can truly feel 'peace'. And I have been working with a certain man that already transcended humanity, and yet strives to 'live', no matter the cost."

The feeling of realization hit Ruby and Blake like a truck, "That man...You're talking about Dio Brando, aren't you?!" Blake shouted out.

He hung his head low, "Indeed. I was a naive fool when I created the group of the Silver Records. I thought I could give everyone the chance to truly 'live' with the power of the Records...But after years, I slowly began to realize that only a select few can carry that privilege, and with all the sacrifices and experiments I made, I still haven't managed to 'live'."

He suddenly turned around. "That is, until that man arrived to this world, and that bizarre power with him."

"That man…?" Ruby repeated, "You mean-"

"No, not Dio Brando. I'm talking about The Door Between Worlds. The one that thanks to his power discovered a world beyond his own. He found life on that other world utterly boring, not worth living. But when he was about to end it all, he found out about his power, Wonderful World, I think he called it, and escaped his boring old world. He told me his story in person."

That was...a lot of information to take in, for the both of them. "Why are you telling us this?"

"If I tell you or don't tell you, it wouldn't matter." He cryptically stated, standing up and facing the two young women. "But I imagine you didn't come here to have a chat, did you? If it's a fight you want I'll grant your desire."

Then, his body was covered in a thick, foggy black Aura that….smelled, like blood and metal. He raised an arm forward, and a shadow started to cover it. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as the shadowy goop started covering his torso. Then, he opened his eyes, his brows furrowed.

"Come, guardian!"

The shadows on his body began swirling upwards above him, fusing and blending together in a small vortex of darkness, and from that vortex a humanoid figure started to form.

* * *

One of the cloaked cultists peered from behind the marble statue of an ursine Grimm, and stared at both Yang and Jotaro looking around.

"This here..." Jotaro touched the ground, it was all covered in grass, real grass, "It's some sort of underground statue garden."

Rows and rows of statues, big and small, filled the garden, representing Grimm, ominous hooded figures, and the Silver Records. One statue at the centre of the garden stood out: It was made in a black, stone-like material, unlike the white statues, and it represented a human with what looked like stigmata on his hands and feet, along with scratches, stab wounds, and holes that looked like they were made by a firearm. The man was bleeding profusely on top of the Silver Records, the stone face was contorted in agony.

"Talk about macabre art..." Yang stepped forward and stared at the bizzare statue, there was something...weird about it.

The hooded cultist kept staring at them, grinned and took off his hood. He looked completely normal underit, but he was anything but normal, for he didn't cast a shadow….Because he WAS a shadow. Beautiful World had infiltrated the Silver Records on behalf of The Door, but there was no way the other two inside the room could have known that, so it was better to play it safe.

The disguised Stand touched the ground, opening up a small 'Sound Portal' right next to the statue. Then, the other two heard a voice:

" _I am the Master of the Silver Records. My name is Bronzo Argento._ "

The two jumped up from surprise and looked around, "What?! Where are you?!" Yang reloaded Ember Celica and red shells dropped on the grass.

The voice coming from the one-way Sound Portal kept talking without stop, explaining the same that he was explaining to Ruby and Blake.

And not only that, but they also heard their voices too.

"Damn it! I don't know where this is coming from, but I have to get to Ruby!" She shouted, and then turned around to face Jotaro "I'm gonna go back to where Ruby and Blake were going, you go on ahead without me."

"Good grief, fine. I'm gonna try and find Kakyon and Josuke."

The Stand smiled and closed off the portal, his job here was done….Well, almost. Now he just had to wait for the conclusion.

[To Be Continued]-->


	62. Confrontation & Corruption

"Why can't you understand it?" The Door marched quickly through the dark hallway, trying to catch up with the lady in the red dress. "He...that...beast is going to betray us all. He does not care about the relics or Her plan. You need to sort this out and eliminate him already."

She stopped, a hint of a smirk growing on her face. "I thought you weren't bothered by anything, or is that just a farce to hide how much of a coward you are?" she asked, slowly turning around,. "You brought him into this world, so if he's planning to betray us..." Cinder stepped forward, her voice was not much higher in volume than a soft whisper.

"You're more guilty as him." she whispered into his ear.

A shiver ran down his back as the words shook him to the core. She was right, on every level. He was a coward who hid behind an uncaring farce. His own Stand lacked any offensive abilities, and even if they did his Stand was temporarily separated from him, leaving him completely defenceless.

She turned around. "But I'll see what I can find, I don't particularly like him either." Then, she walked outside the hallway, slamming the door behind her.

The Door was left a fidgety, scared mess now that his calm persona was torn off. He had to call back Beautiful World, he had to find something, anything that could be able to stop that beast, anything at all. But first, he had to do something…

He quickly rummaged inside his coat and took out something: The Arrow, the second object he brought to that world. With shaking hands he threw it as hard as he could on the ground, shattering the tip.

He sighed in relief. Now that he destroyed that object nobody, included he himself, would have been able to create new Stand Users.

He turned around and walked towards the end of the corridor, that split into left and right. Just as he was about to turn right, he heard...something coming from behind his back. Steps. Heavy steps, of someone that wasn't trying to hide their presence.

Without warning and chance for him to fight back someone gripped at the back of his head in an iron tight grip.

He wasn't even allowed to shout in surprise as the hand turned his head around, with such strength it threatened to snap his neck like a twig.

The Door managed to look at its assailants. A long haired man shrouded in the darkness of the hallway, its pearl-white fanged teeth shining through. Next to him stood a bald man in a military uniform. It was that Atlas officer that was shot with the Arrow by Tyrion!

"N-No..." The Door's body shook wildly, paralysed in fear yet trying to break free at the same time. "W-Why?! Why are you here?! Y-You were supposed to be-"

The officer walked in front of him, took out a combat knife and stabbed The Door in the chest, piercing one of the lungs and leaving him winded for air.

"Be quiet. Wouldn't want someone to hear us, right?" The mind controlled officer whispered, smiling maniacally

"Now...why did you have to break the arrow like that? Are you a little kid throwing a temper tantrum?" Dio laughed softly.

"G-uuh..." The Door spat blood on the ground, unable to call for help.

He placed another hand on his head. "Now you serve no purpose to us any more. It is time for you to...go."

The only thing that The Door was able to utter was a weak "N-No..." before his head was split in half and blood began oozing out like a grotesque fountain. Giblets splattered on the floor as his body squirmed in pain, before stopping completely and falling on the ground, lifeless.

* * *

A robotic voice started to come from the Silver Records, monotone, but somehow...nervous, with a tinge of fear: "Threat Detected. Threat Detected. Stand back or be eliminated."

"Hell no!" Josuke shouted at the...'thing', "After all this trouble we all went through I ain't stopping now!"

The red 'eyes' at the center of the four disks grew redder, and a sudden 'wave' travelled at high speed towards them. Well, it was more like a moving, near-invisible wall. It hit Kakyoin and started forcibly pushing him back.

Josuke let out a battle cry as he ran over to Kakyoin and punched the invisible wall with Crazy Diamond. It near-immediatly dissapeared.

Kakyoin coughed, standing back up. "What is this attack…?"

Josuke's mind was going at a thousand thoughts a second, trying to think up of what it may possibly be. It wasn't a simple powerful gust of wind, that wouldn't explain the 'distorted' surroundings that hid the church and the room, so what it could have been?

The words suddenly slipped inside his mind….no, they were always there, he just didn't put them together. "Distortion..." he muttered, "Distortion! That's what it's doing, it's distorting reality itself and bending it to its will!"

That accusation was incredibly outlandish, even for the situation they were in. That would basically like admitting a thing is really god-like. However, Josuke didn't think of it that way "But since it distorts and 'breaks' reality, my Crazy Diamond can fix it. It must somehow sense this power, that's why it's so afraid of me!"

Kakyoin's eyes lit up in realization, "Then let's use that fear against it!"

The Silver Records shot out another wall of distortion towards Josuke. He planted his feet on the ground and tanked the hit, slowly being pushed back. "G-Gaaaah!"

With that shout Crazy Diamond pushed the wall back and 'fixed' it, and started sprinting along with its user towards the Records.

They started floating around, panicked and seemingly unable to move from their pedestal of blood, like they were bound in place.

"I'll break you open!" Josuke shouted as Crazy Diamond raised its fist, making it plummet towards the disks.

"DORARARARARARARARARARARARARA! DORAA!"

The Silver Records were hit by a flurry of punches, bashing them again and again. Josuke took a breath of relief, thinking it was over…

That is, until the dust settled, and the Silver Records shine through, with not a single scratch or dent on its surface. It stood completely still, and...grey, it was like it turned into stone. Before the two could even process the situation the red 'eyes' began shining again, staring at the two.

"We Are Unbreakable." They stated in a high-pitched, robotic voice, "You Cannot Beat Us. You. Cannot. Beat. Us."

The air around them started to feel more heavy and oppressive, distorting.

Josuke was suddenly pushed back and with a shout crashed against the rocky ground, cutting his back on a few jagged rags, "Gah! What is happening?!"

A few silent seconds passed as they stared all around themselves. From the grounds and from the walls weird tentacle-like black appendages started to sprout, reaching out to them. They twitched and flickered, as if they couldn't maintain their form in reality.

Kakyoin gritted his teeth, trembling, "W-What the hell are these things? Emerald Splash!"

The many small crystals tore through some of the distorted tentacles, blowing bullet-sized holes in them. But they didn't stop twitching and moving, and just...reformed. One of them sneaked up on Kakyoin and grabbed his red hair, pulling his head back.

"G-Gaah! Josuke, do so-" His face contorted in despair as he looked over at Josuke.

He laid there on the ground, breathing, but completely unconscious. And slowly the appendiges were approaching his defenceless body.

* * *

The vortex of darkness closed, and what laid before them seemed straight out of a nightmare. Black rags covered its body from head to toe, red bat wings laid from its hunched back, flapping slowly: Its face and attire resembled that of a mummy, with bright red eyes rotten teeth, a skull-like face. Two long, curved horns sprouted from the top of its head, giving it a demoniacal look. It wielded a heavy, curved blade the size of a tree trunk.

And in size, the Guardian was as big and muscular as Star Platinum.

It groaned heavily, raising up its head, flying idly beside Bronzo. Compared to its master the Guardian was gigantic.

"Behold the most powerful Guardian ever created: mine." He stated, turning around. "I will give you one last chance: stop this foolish mission, and we will forgive you."

Ruby took deep breaths, holding onto Crescent Rose for dear life. "W-We might be out of our league here..." she muttered to Blake.

Blake held onto her weapon, stepping forward, and shouted: "W-"

Or she would have, if it wasn't for a...little interruption. "AS IF THEY WOULD ACCEPT THAT OFFER!" a familiar voice screamed, and a golden flash soared through the underground cathedral, like a small burning yellow comet headed straight for Bronzo.

The Guardian flew towards its master and held its sword high.

Yang's golden fist collided against the massive sword while screaming like a madwoman. The resulting shock wave was so devastating that half of the benches that weren't stuck to the ground flew wildly.

The mummy-like Guardian turned around with surprising speed and smacked Yang away with one of its wings, making her crash against the ground.

"A shame, a shame indeed." Bronzo muttered, still giving them his back. He stepped up to his throne, and sat down with an uncaring, cold look in his eyes. "Destroy them, Apep."

Apep roared and raised its curved sword as it loomed over Yang. The blonde huntress raised her fists and crossed them together, awaiting the impact.

The sound of metal crashing against metal was loud enough to make the others cover their ears.

Yang's knee bended as Apep kept pressing its sword downwards, her defence weakening.

Ruby let out a high pitched yell and ran forward: "That's right! We'll stop you!"

Crescent Rose in hand she boosted forward and pressed her boot right onto Apep's face. The Grimm Guardian grunted and raised his sword to attack her, treating her nothing more than an annoying fly.

She jumped behind it and gave its right wing a nasty cute that oozed black blood. But the Guardian was too fast for her, it turned around suddenly and slashed her with its massive sword. Her Aura struggled to even barely deflect the hit, and she smashed against one of the cathedral's stone seats, turning it into rubble.

Ruby groaned and collected herself, and turned to face Bronzo. "What're you waiting for, fight us!"

Bronzo laughed softly, resting his cheek on the palm of his hand. "Apep is stronger than dozens of fighters combined...Well, it would be more accurate is that it is the fusion of dozens of people that died by my hand in all these years..."

Blake swooped in and lifted up Yang, jumping over the Guardian with cat-like agility. After dropping Yang back to her feet she dashed over to the throne, and attempted to stab Bronzo with her sharp sheath, full of silent anger.

The blade, however, was stopped suddenly by a black, rotating, spiralling disk. "Attacking someone unfit for a fight? That's just cheating, is it?" he stated. The dark disk let off a pulse that pushed her back.

_What was that?_ They all couldn't help but think. It was like a shield, but it didn't seem to be coming from the throne, nor from him. But rather…

"As long as Apep fights, none of you will be able to lay a finger on me."

[To Be Continued]-->


	63. Apep

"What did you just say?!" Blake shouted, coughing as she smacked her face against the ground and was forced to jump away from Apep's sword range.

Bronzo laid back on his throne, crossing one leg over the other. "Indeed, my Guardian may be called...the perfect bodyguard. Apep will continue to protect me as long as it exists, and even then...It can simply reform after a set amount of time."

Without thinking Blake gulped, just what the hell did they get into? That guy wasn't simply toying with them, he was watching them like he wasn't part of the fight at all.

Apep spun its sword around multiple times and created a whirlwind and made the three Huntresses fly across the room, scattering them.

"Gah..!" Blake shouted as she smacked against the ground. The opponent before them was fast and agile enough to match them and with enough strength to take on all of them at once. A thought crossed the Faunus girl's mind...Maybe even after all that training they still weren't prepared enough?

Wait...the training. An idea sprung to mind. They had been working various 'formations' during those nights of training, along with co-ordinated attacks. She looked up, and around, benches, a large chandelier, the throne and the bottomless abyss, huh…Maybe…

"Ruby, I suggest we use the 'High Ground' co-ordinated attack." It was a little dumb nickname they'd give to attacks, but it should have been enough for her to understand Blake's intention

Ruby, recovering from the first attack, nodded quickly and took the opportunity to run across the cavern like wall of the cathedral and shot herself towards the demonically strong guardian. She was scared of approaching such a beast, but her adrenaline she felt as she soared half across the room inhibited that fear. The edge of the scythe transformed, twisting and turning more akin to a spear.

The war scythe stabbed the Guardian in its chest and...it simply looked down as the scythe, burrowed inside the middle of its body, started drawing an incredible amount of black blood. It let out a loud growl, looking more annoyed than truly wounded. Even after all that accumulated momentum it wasn't enough to really hurt the Guardian.

"H-Hahaha..." Ruby laughed awkwardly, looking up as she sneakily tried pulling away the scythe, "Can't we...y'know, talk this out?" she meekly looked up, waiting for the inevitable.

_**Boom. Boom.** _

As soon as Apep raised its sword to slash the poor Rose in two a red blast hit its head. Its neck was pulled back from the force of the hit and it turned around abruptly. It slid with an ugly, gut-wrenching sound out of the scythe, twisted its body around and flew at high speed towards its new attacker: Yang.

She used the recoil to jump back, letting out another pair of explosive shots aimed at the Guardian's head. But the Guardian dodged past them, one shot only barely scratching one of its horns, and it closed off their distance in a matter of seconds.

It spun around itself and slammed the sword down against Yang's gauntlets that attempted to block the attack, and then proceeded to drive its massive fist right to her guts. Yang let out a gasp,, but resisted the temptation to clutch at her stomach in pain,

She squinted her eyes, gritted her teeth and bared the pain, and attempted to punch the attacker square in the face.

However, as soon as she tried to do it a black rope wrapped itself around the monster's thick neck, and began twisting it back and pulling it. It looked back, and saw Blake, standing on top of a stone bench, pulling the rope of her weapon with as much strength as possible.

Blake then promptly did a backflip, pulling the mummy Grimm with her and making it smash through the various benches as it struggled to free itself.

The surprise attack seemed to have put Apep at a disadvantage, even while Bronzo, his supposed master, was keeping a watchful eye at the scene. It was like he didn't care about the outcome of the fight at all.

Yang rushed forward, taking full advantage of the opportunity Blake gave her, her eyes turning from purple to a crimson red.

It raised its sword to block the attack again, groaning in anger all the while. However…

Blake's rope was torn apart. "NOW!" she shouted, jumping back and taking her sword out of its edged scabbard.

At the same time, Ruby was trying to balance her lithe body on top of the swaying chandlelier hanging from the roof, and accidentally stepped on the hot wax of the candles. She bit her lip to keep herself from yelping in pain, and tried to aim with her Crescent Rose, she hovered her finger on the trigger, and…

_**Bang.** _

A sound that belonged more to a handheld cannon than a sniper rifle boomed throughout the underground cathedral. The bullet spun around itself, going at high enough speed to break the sound barrier. It travelled meters across the room before colliding and passing through Apep's wrist, creating a gaping bullet-sized hole in it.

Its sword hand twisted back from the force of the bullet and its sword slipped under its grip, leaving it completely stunned and without method to guard itself.

Yang jumped up and raised her fist, grinning. She was barely a few centimetres away from the Grimm Guardian. "Gotcha." She stated with a smug, confident tone. Her fist collided against the side of the Guardian's head. Its right horn shattered on impact and the bones of the skull echoed a hair-tingling crunch.

Apep screamed and slid on the rocky ground, the force of the hit propelling it with enough force for it to land right in front of the throne. And then, it stopped moving, its eyes closing.

_Clap. Clap. Clap._

The unenthusiastic clapping came from Bronzo, looking at the three with uncaring, empty eyes. "My deepest congratulations, I have never seen my Guardian meet such a challenge before."

Yang took deep breaths, and stepped forward. "Clap all you want...But you're next." She slammed her fists together, getting more and more pumped as incredible amount of adrenaline coursed through Yang's body.

But, at that threat, Bronzo simply...shrugged, "My Apep is still not done fighting. Did you really think an attack as small as that would kill it? It simply...knocked it out."

Dark gas started to form around Apep's body, but it didn't move. It wasn't much different from when a Grimm dies, at least to them.

_He's bluffing_. Yang thought to to herself,  _I'm not gonna fall for that!_

Blake could see it: the daring and courageous expression in Yang's eyes. But she felt...something was off, it was too convenient that the Guardian would fall right next to the throne, and their foe's nonchalant uncaring attitude. It all felt like….Bait.

A look of horror started to form on the catgirl's face as she witnessed Yang jumping forward and rushing towards the throne. "Yang! No! It's a tra-"

Apep stopped playing dead as soon as the girl approached., It raised its arm upwards slightly, and a disk made out of a mysterious dark energy started to form around the monster's fingers. It spun around quickly enough that its movements became a blur. The black disk flew right out of the Guardian's fingers, and hit Yang square in the stomach.

Her rush was suddenly stopped. Her Aura flickered as the edged circle started tearing through her flesh enough to draw copious amounts of blood.

She trembled, and her gaze slowly went down, staring at her own gushing wound, and then at Bronzo.. "N-No..This..Can't…."

She fell backwards and dropped down, unconscious.  _Thud_.

Ruby almost fell from the chandelier at the sight of her own sister dropping to the ground after bleeding that much. She felt her head go light at the thought that she could lose Yang forever, she had to do something, any-

Apep snarled and threw another conjured dark disk, aimed right at Ruby. It flew at high speed, way too high for a disk of any kind. She activated her Semblance and curved around the projectile. The disk slashed clean through the chain that held up the chandelier, making it crash downwards.

"Huh…?" Ruby muttered, suddenly registering that she was falling. She let out a shout and adjusted herself so she would fall on her feet, but it didn't quite work out.

She rolled back, falling at such high speed to impact even her Aura. She looked in horror as Apep stood up, raising its sword right on top of Yang's neck like some sort of executioner.

Ruby felt paralysed, her eyes widened up in terror. She attempted to fight back against that fear and move forward, holding onto her weapon.

Small purple-hued bullets hit the Guardian in the head, and they glanced off without even scratching. Blake rushed forward and slashed away with her two blades at the Guardian.

The Guardian growled and turned around, flapping its wings and taking flight. " **Per**... **sis**...t **ant**..." The Grimm slowly muttered, before kicking Blake away.

She grunted, gripping at her chest in pain as she kneeled over. Was it really an impossible fight? Was Yang really about to die, and she could do nothing to stop it? Maybe she should have just ran away, like she's so used to doing. She took a deep breath, and used her blades to support herself as she stood up.. "No...I won't...I won't run away any more! I won't abandon my friends, and we won't lose to someone like you! Not now, not  **EVER**!"

Ruby looked over at her teammate, and despite the rather hopeless situation, she still smiled. Her words were full of determination.

Bronzo Argento tapped his fingers against the armrest of the throne, rhythmically. "Don't you realize? You three already lo-"

"Well, I guessed right. You three really cannot do anything without me around." A familiar voice stated, and a particular sound echoed throughout the room: the sound of high heels tapping against the rocky floor.

Everyone's heads turned to look over at the entrance of the cathedral, and there she was: Weiss Schnee, with her hair still untied and reaching up to her back, walking calmly.

"Weiss!" Ruby and Blake shouted, surprised.

She placed her free hand on her hip, and pointed her rapier towards the Guardian, smirking. "I just came back from putting down an annoying snake-woman. I am not in the best of moods right now."

"Oh, your speech was also pretty cool, Blake. Try to do that when I'm around too, though." Weiss pulled her hair back, smiling.

Bronzo, for once, smirked. "Ah, so the whole Team is finally here. What a fitting climax."

[To Be Continued]-->


	64. Unbreakable?

Apep sprayed out its wings, slowly raising above the ground, hovering in front of its Master. It gave off the feeling of a knight protecting its king.

"Hmph, kill her first."

At its Master's words the Grimm Guardian flew past Yang, Blake and Ruby with blinding speed that rivaled Ruby's Semblance and headed straight to Weiss.

Weiss stabbed her sword on the ground, and a white glyph appeared at her feet: a Time Dilation Glyph that sped the movements of the target.

She pulled up the sword with unnatural speed and dashed forward towards Apep. Their swords clashed the next moment.

And then again, and again. The sound of metal clashing and scratching against metal echoed around the room.

The two fighters circled around each-other and traded blows continuously, neither of them showing signs of giving in.

Ruby cashed in on the opportunity and with a "Hai-ya!" straight out of a kung-fu movie slashed forward with her scythe.

The slash grazed the skull and the blade attached against the creature's other horn. Ruby quickly pressed her foot against its back and pulled back, twisting its neck back.

At the same time Weiss repeatedly stabbed the creature in its stomach, chest, groin, and pretty much anywhere her sword's tip could pierce. The creature roared in pure rage and swung its sword wildly, backing away and trying to shake Ruby off its back.

Ruby held onto her scythe for dear life. Her finger hovering on the trigger before finally pressing it. The recoil of the bullet snapped the scythe's blade back and sliced the creature's remaining horn clean off. The Guardian took its sword with both hands and tried to slash Ruby by raising the blade over its own head and bringing it down its back.

Unfortunately for the Guardian, Ruby practically took off along with the horn. She rolled around on the ground before quickly standing up. The sword lodged itself inside Apep's back, and as the creature tried to take it out it cut deep the base of one of its bat-wings, and half of it was cut off.

Blake, who was quickly dragging Yang away to safety, muttered: "It's over..."

Weiss quickly took the chance and turned the Guardian into a pin cushion, stabbing the resistant creature full of small but noticeable holes. But no matter how many times she hit it wouldn't even stumble. "Just die already, you skull-faced bastard!"

Ruby gasped at that word, to which Weiss quickly responded: "I'm allowed to say profanities once in a while too!"

After that little cut-in the Guardian grabbed onto the hilt of its curved blade and swiftly pulled it out of its back, letting out a spray of black blood. The blade then promptly smashed against Weiss's head, used more like a club than a sword.

_Thunk._

With an almost comical sound Weiss stumbled backwards and fell on her behind, but other than that there was no damage. "Ow, ow..." She clutched at her head like a kid that just smacked her head against the wall.

" _Aah...Aaah..Aaaaah..._ " The Guardian let out deep, rocky breaths. The wounds were starting to take its toll, and they were getting worse by the minute.

Blake slid in front of Apep and slashed a dozen or so times. The Guardian's movements were incredibly slowed down, and it could barely block half of them.

But the fight was already decided when Ruby dashed beside the Grimm Guardian and stabbed the tip of Crescent Rose inside its chins, snapping its chin upwards. Ruby used the scythe as leverage and quickly lifted the Grimm Guardian off the ground, and promptly slammed it on the other side without giving it even a second to fight back. Then, when the body crashed on the ground and pulled towards her own body.

The scythe cut through the chin, the mouth, the bone-y nose, the forehead. The entire skull was split in half like a coconut, and the creature let out one last grunt, before disappearing into thick black smoke.

"Hahaha..." Bronzo softly laughed, like he just watched an entertaining show. "Splendid, I truly underestimated your collective power."

"G-Gaah..." Yang slowly groaned as she came back to her senses, holding onto an half-broken bench and slowly standing up.

Ruby stepped forward. Half of her wanted to run to her sister and give her a hug, but she had to confront Bronzo first, it was practically her duty as the leader of her Team. "Just...give up, your whole organization is done for."

"Kehehe...You all went this far, yet you all know so, so little about what's happening." He stood up, and immediately Team RWBY perked up and held onto their weapons. But then, a thought suddenly hit Ruby.  _This man...is not dangerous at all. Without his Guardian he's just a normal man, I can't even sense an Aura on him._

"Very well then, allow me to explain the complete truth about this situation, and then you can finish me off. Allow a poor old fool of a father to be of use to you."

* * *

**Meanwhile, inside the Sacrificial Chamber of the Silver Records**

The room grew dimmer and dimmer as more distorted tentacles sprouted out of the walls and ground, they were everywhere, like iron bars preventing an exit.

The tendrils wrapped around his throat and tried to pull Kakyoin away from Josuke's unconscious body.

He reached out his hand forward trying to grasp at something to hold onto. "Damn it...Fuck!" He shouted. It wasn't like him to swear like that, but at that point, he just didn't know what was happening anymore. It was like he was in some sort of eldritch nightmare. Hierophant Green appeared behind him and shot a large Emerald Cannon projectile at the tendril holding Kakyoin's throat.

The arm-sized bullet tore the tentacle apart, allowing enough freedom for Kakyoin to slither away and run towards Josuke. He jumped over a couple of small tentacles sprouting from cracks on the ground.

He took a deep breath, and started thinking. "These...aren't living beings. And if they're not alive..." he looked back, and noticed that the tentacle he blasted regenerated completely. "I...can't kill them."

The tentacles started fusing together and shifting into shadowy, humanoid beings with tentacle appendages instead of arms and legs.

They formed a wall around Josuke, intending to completely block off Kakyoin's passage.

_Damn it. Damn it! I have to protect Josuke. But I can't destroy these stupid...'distortions'!_

"Well, good thing they can be slowed down."

And just like that, a sudden wild tornado of blurred fists shattered the humanoids and threw them wildly away.

Jotaro and his Star Platinum ran in front of Josuke's body before the humanoid distortions could reform. He seemed to have punched his way through the distortions without much of a scratch on him.

Kakyoin took a sigh of relief as he looked up at his old friend. "Quick, we need to get out of he-"

"No." Jotaro suddenly cut him off, "We need to protect Josuke until he wakes up. Something's happening that we can't see, I can feel it."

Kakyoin stared wide-eyed at him, he has never seen Jotaro act so...irrational, it felt out of character for him, so he must have had a reason for that. "H-How can you tell?"

Jotaro looked back for a second to stare at the Silver Records. They were petrified, and didn't move an inch, all of the 'eyes' were pointed towards Josuke. "That's why. That thing's doing something to Josuke, and if we get him away it might take out our only opportunity to destroy it."

"But how?! Crazy Diamond let out a flurry of bone-crunching punches at the thing and it didn't even have a scratch!"

"We don't have much of a choice even if we do try to escape, this thing could probably block out the entirety of the underground complex, and without Josuke we'd be completely stuck."

Kakyoin scooted back, going back-to-back with Jotaro as more mind-bending disturbing distortions in space and time approached them.

"You raise a fair point there. Have you ever heard of Lovecraft?"

Star Platinum raised its fists in a defensive stance, waiting for the 'creatures' to arrive. "The hell's that?"

"A western author famous for his stories about the occult, secret evil cults and horrors from beyond the starts. For some reason I can't help but be reminded of that here."

"Huh." Jotaro smirked as the distortions twitched and crawled their way towards the two back-to-back Stand Users. "Is that so?"

* * *

A complete, consuming darkness was the only thing Josuke could see, an impenetrable, oppressive, suffocating darkness. "G-Guh..." He groaned, he felt the darkness wrap around his throat like a rope.. He tried moving his arms but they just wouldn't move! It was a very familiar feeling, only at that moment it felt like that feeling was trying to overwhelm him and kill him.

Then, three silver circles formed out of that darkness, shining an unnatural, malignant light.

"If We Cannot Destroy You Outside We Will Destroy You Inside Your Very Soul."

Josuke coughed again, "My..soul?" it repeated. The dark noose thightened around his neck, allowing him to breathe less and less.

"We Can Infiltrate The Souls Of 'Stand Users' And Influence Them. The Closer They Are To Us The More We Can Influence Them. In This Case We Can Outright Kill You. That Is Not Your Body, It Is Merely A Projection Of Your Consciousness."

That voice was like someone grinding their teeth against a chalkboard. Josuke wanted to cover his ears but he just couldn't. What could he do when something like that was manipulating his very soul?

"C-Crazy Diamond!"

Nothing happened. Instead he just kept sinking deeper and deeper.

"You Cannot Summon Your 'Stand' Inside Yourself. It Is Best You Accept Your Fate." The Silver Records Stated, hovering closer to him. "Nothing Can Destroy Us. We Are Gods. We. Are. Unbreakable."

He closed his eyes, and the darkness started wrapping around his mouth. His body convulsed in an attempt to fight back.

"You Will Suffer A Heart Attack In The Real World Shortly." The Silver 'Gods' observed Josuke from above, their red 'eyes' blinking and focused on him.

The only thing that could fight back against those 'distortions' was Crazy Diamond and his ability to 'restore' the shattered reality the Records formed.  _If...only I had my Stand's power…_

That rogue thought sparked an idea in his mind as the darkness was slowly enveloping him like a deep black sea.

His arms were deep in that complete darkness, but suddenly they began to spasm and move under it. Josuke closed his eyes as he felt the back of his head slipping into oblivion.

And suddenly, where his hands were buried a sudden light pierced the darkness. His arms moved upwards and the dark distortions seemed to move out of the way!

He brought one hand to his mouth, and the thick dark ropes keeping it shut suddenly disappeared.

The Silver Records suddenly moved back and started to heavily panic, rolling around themselves quickly while trembling: "THE POWER WE FEAR. THE POWER WE FEAR. NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN."

"Oh shut up, you giant goddamn donuts!" The sea of darkness around him started to quickly dissapear into tiny black particles. He sat up, taking deep breaths. Though was it really necessary, considering where he was? "This is my own soul, it's not that hard to think that I can channel my Stand's power through here."

The black sea was quickly regressing, and what was left covering the strange, eldritch location were….Pictures, memories, some that still burned greatly in Josuke's mind.

The town of Morioh, the friends he discovered, the mysteries he solved, the battle against that man...All of those memories were there. He didn't know why, but the fact that the Silver Records tried to shroud those memories in darkness was truly pissing him off.

"Hehe." He adjusted his (fake) jacket, and cracked his knuckles. "I bet the reason why ya tried to immobilize me is because it's in this place where you're most vulnerable, right? You're not as 'unbreakable' as you say you are."

The Records let out a long, high-pitched  _shriek_ that sounded like the wailing of a banshee as an answer.

"I'll take that as a yes. Time to eat some giant donuts!"

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1: Good thing the RWBY Wiki exists, otherwise I would have little to no idea how most of the Semblances and the Weapons work.


	65. End Of The Silver Records

Team RWBY cautiously formed a semi-circle around Bronzo Argento and pointed their weapons towards him just in case. With a bottomless pit behind him and an entire team at his front, he truly had no means to escape.

He got comfortable on his throne, resting both his arms idly "I don't actually believe the Silver Records are some sort of gods, I never did. But that 'being' is sentient, and most of all narcissistic. I created the Cult of The Silver Records both to appease the Records's ego and also function as a small personal army that could gather sacrifices."

"Wait." A stray voice stopped him, Ruby's voice. "If that's the case...then why were the sacrifices necessary?"

"One might say that the 'Silver Records' are an alchemical tool. It uses the blood of beings in order to create the Elixirs. Our most common and easier to create one was the 'Teleportation Elixirs', which allowed most of the members to teleport freely and sneak past security."

At those words Yang lock and loaded her gauntlets, visibly trying to threaten him. "You better not try anything weird with that."

He looked over at her with a tired eyes, shook his head, and stared back at the rest of the group. "Our second, and vastly more difficult to create and maintain in a human's body was the 'Grimm Elixir', made out of a mix of human blood and the essence of still living Grimms. As you all might expect, this is the Elixir that creates the 'Grimm Guardians', as we've decided to call them. The Elixir had to first be drunk by a suitable member with enough willpower to survive it, and then 'plant' the seed of the Grimm Guardian in the ground."

Weiss frowned as she spoke up. "To even experiment with still living Grimms...you're less of a cult leader and more of a mad scientist."

"My daughter, Fiore Argento, was born with a unique Semblance that allowed her to summon and control creatures of Grimm in the vicinity. Not once in her life did a Grimm attack her, no matter what she did. To this day I have no idea on why she was blessed with such a dangerous and powerful talent, one may call it fate's whimsy."

The four listened to his explanation, none of them really sure if they could trust his words yet.

"Regardless, this was the only reason I allowed her to join the cult is exactly because of that Semblance, I wished she could have had a normal life, without being affected by my ambitions. But without that Semblance the experiments on the Grimms simply wouldn't have been possible. She s not a killer, she really is not, I'm the reason why she became the second Hunter and killed so many people. Their blood is on my hands." He spoke like a father trying to justify his child's misconduct, though it was much, much more serious than that.

"Get. To. The. POINT!" Yang shouted and got into a threatening stance with her fists clenched and her body tensing up, her eyes gradually reddening with anger. Her breathing was heavy, and the wound she suffered started to slightly bleed again, though the others tried their best to patch it up beforehand.

Blake placed a hand on her shoulder, and shook her head "If you use your Semblance and exert your body, that wound might open back up again, or worsen."

Yang took a few deep breaths, her mood slowly stabilizing, her wound with it.

Just as Bronzo was about to continue, Ruby stopped him in advance. "Why? Why are you telling us this? What do you gain from this?"

Weiss chimed in: "Yeah, considering you and your little group are about to spend the rest of their lives in an Atlas jail."

Bronzo laughed under his breath, eyes half closed. "I already told you, didn't I? You all already lost. You're too late, the Silver Records, both the objects and the cult around them, have already fulfilled their purpose?"

Their eyes widened, and all let out different variations of a confused "Huh?"

"The Ultimate Elixir I was striving to create...Has already been created. The culmination of my research, all the sacrifices, all the blood that has been spilled on top of the Records….It is done."

"What does that mean? Explain yourself!" Blake shouted, walking forward and pointing her sheathed blade towards him, directly in front of his skull.

"Hahaha, there's no need for that. I already decided I would tell you everything I knew." His body was completely relaxed even at the sight of the blade pointed at him. "The Ultimate Elixir was created in secret by myself, I never spoke this to anyone else in the cult. When the Stand Users started popping up I discovered that the Silver Records could access the souls of Stand Users, and gather their blood from a distance. I started gathering blood from all Stand Users I knew of, whether they were friend or foe was irrelevant."

"Then...that's what those dreams that Jotaro was talking about were!" Yang exclaimed. The other three looked at her confused, not knowing what she was talking about. "I'll tell you all when we get outta here, keep speaking! What's so special about Stand User blood?"

"I do not know why or how, but I suspect that the Silver Records had a much better...synergy with the blood of Stand Users. I myself suspect that the Records are a Stand themselves, but if that's the case I don't know who the User would be, or how it got in this world without the help of The Door. Its arrival on Remnant is truly a mystery."

Ruby too was starting to get irritated by his talking. "Stop dancing around the topic and just tell us! What's this 'Ultimate Elixir' thinghie you brought up?"

"In short..." He hesitated, looking around for a second, settling his eyes on the ground, tapping his finger against the armrest of the throne, biding for time and looking like he was rather enjoying the confused and expectant looks of the four girls.

"It's...ultimate power. A power so great only a single person in this world could survive it, let alone wield it. A power that changes the very being of a person, makes them something more than human...All so that that single person could 'truly live' forever, without worry."

His words were chilling, frightening even, his voice was so deep it would send chills down anyone's spine. But his next words were downright terrifying:

"And that single man that can withstand the power of the Ultimate Elixir...Is Dio Brando."

"W-Whaat…?" Ruby was dumbfounded, the grip to her scythe was bit more shaky than usual.

"That has to be a lie, or a bluff. No way something like that can exist..." While she said that, Weiss was having doubts herself. What if it was true? What would happen to them, to their world if a wicked man like that gained so much power?

"It is neither. The deal has been struck and done. A courier, a bald man in a military uniform, already got the Elixir before you all could get here. I am afraid to tell you all...the game has been rigged from the start. All the pieces are nearly in place, and soon..."

He stopped, and his eyes opened wide. The usually calm, collected eyes were twisted in a swirl of madness and despair. "I hope you all realize now. The fate of everyone here, on this world, has already been decided. Even if I wanted to stop it, there's nothing I can do now!" He erupted into a wicked and sad laugh, more similar to cries of a broken man than the laugh of a deranged criminal.

"This guy..." Yang really wanted to walk towards him and beat the crap out of him for all the stuff he caused. But just as she tried stepping forward the floating holographic screens of the throne suddenly lit up to life. Bronzo's hands were quick on the draw, and he quickly tapped a screen to his right without looking.

"I...am sorry...Fiore..."

The only thing that the right screen said before it closed was: " _ **Confirm Suicide Option?**_ "

"What? No!" Ruby dropped Crescent Rose and turned into a swirling red cannonball headed towards Bronzo, but it was already too late:

A small drill poked out of the throne, right behind Bronzo's head. It started spinning and growing forward, and fast as a bullet it drove through his skull. He didn't react, he didn't scream in pain as the drill started tearing open his brain, nothing, just a saddened look, and swirling eyes full of desperation.

The tip of the drill poked through the other side of the head, poking out of the forehead. Gradually it stopped spinning, and Bronzo's body laid limply on the throne.

Ruby stopped right at the feet of the throne, and covered her mouth with one hand. She didn't know why, but she started to tear up. "Why...he...I don't understand...why did he do that?"

Yang quickly stepped forward and yanked Ruby back, hugging her from behind and comforting her like any responsible big sister would do in a situation like that.

Blake approached the body, crouching beside it."He probably...didn't want to witness the consequences of his actions."

"In short, he took the ultimate escape route." Weiss stepped back and averted her eyes from the corpse. "We should go to tell the others about everything. Where are they? Polnareff remained up there to guard the exit, but I do not know about the others."

Yang rubbed the back of Ruby's head. She was a lot more...shocked than the others. Not afraid, not saddened, but shocked, the kind that one would get right after seeing someone die via a self-inflicted drill to the skull. Yang spoke up: "I'm...not sure, I'm sure Jotaro's with the others, something about an elevator...But I'm not sure what's taking them all so long, all the cultists should be KO by now."

Blake looked towards the exit of the cathedral. "Maybe they're already out?"

Then with perfect timing the ground slowly shook.

"Or maybe not."

* * *

The tentacle wrapped around Jotaro's waist and lifted him off the ground and smashed him against the rough stone wall, again, and again. He could feel his body attempting to withstand the force of the impact and failing, he felt like his back bones could break at any second.

"G-Guh...Damn it, they're kicking our asses!" He shouted. Star Platinum slipped its fingers inside the tentacle and pulled it apart, splitting it in half. Jotaro landed back up on his feet and ran towards Kakyoin, who was currently being submerged by a mass of distortions.

Jotaro quickly bashed his shoulder against the mass and disrupted it a little. Just enough to reveal Kakyoin's face and allowing his reddened face to take a well-earned breath of fresh air. Well, as fresh as a musty underground cave could allow.

"ORAORAORAORA" A couple of rapid-fire fists pushed away the twitchy distortions. Star Platinum quickly reached out a hand and yanked Kakyoin up to his feet.

Meanwhile, more and more strange holes in reality started appearing on the walls and ground, it was like reality itself was collapsing around them. "This...is a nightmare..." Kakyoin barely could muster the will to summon Hierophant Green. It was painful to even breathe, the air around them was heavy, near unbreathable.

A humanoid distortion lashed out and Jotaro was barely able to block it. "These things are near unbeatable without Josuke."

"Damn it, Josuke...wake up, damn it!" Kakyoin shouted at the top of his lungs.

* * *

**Meanwhile**

The Records lined up one after the other and packed tightly together, giving the illusion of one single Record with an incredibly bright centre. The Records twitched and from the center a pulse of black distortions was shot out, aiming for Josuke.

Josuke ran on top of a memory of his childhood, and jumped over a gaping hole, landing on top of a much more recent memory of his first arrival in Remnant. He raised a glowing hand in front of his body and the coming wave of distortions was promptly cut in half and returned to nothing. "That won't work again! You're already history!"

" **AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE** "The Silver Records screeched again and tried to shamble away from him.

"Oh SHUT THE HELL UP!" Josuke threw his glowing fist back and smashed it against the nearest silver disk. The disk let out an even higher pitched screech as it shattered, and the red light slowly waned and then flickered out in silence.

He turned around to face the other scattered Records. He extended a glowing fingers towards each of the three remaining. "I'm going to 'fix' your stupid distortions by breaking ya. Ain't that funny?"

The three went silent….And started to slowly fade in and out.

"Oooh no you don't! This ends now!" Josuke pushed his 'body' forward and jumped several meters forward, a feat practically impossible in the real world unless he was in some sort of 0 Gravity zone. He plunged towards one of the Records and jumped on top of it, smashing it like a china plate before it could escape.

His entire body started to glow, and he felt the power coursing through him as he regained more and more control over his soul. He started running at mac speed towards the third Silver Record and bull-rushed it, pressing his entire body against the being and shattering it.

His 'body' glowed more and more, to the point it could've been barely recognized as Josuke. It was more like he was entirely made of energy, and considering this was his soul, it was probably how it was originally, before those 'gods' infiltrated it.

" _ **NIAAAAAAAAAAAAH**_!" The final Silver Record screamed and tried as hard as it could to escape, but it was too late.

"Get out of my soul, forever!" He pointed at the cursed object and a beam of light shot right out of his fingertip. The beam started expanding the more it travelled, first being only as wide as a finger, then as a whole arm, then as the trunk of Josuke's body, and more, and more, then, it finally collided against the screaming disk, and….

Then everything turned to white.

* * *

"…..o….ke….su...e..." That voice felt so distant, but at an arm's reach at the same time.

"Jo...suke….Josuke….Josuke!" The feminine voice startled him awake and promptly made him butt his head against Ruby's forehead.

"O-Oow..." She rubbed her forehea, falling back on her behind.

Josuke looked around. It was the sacrificial room of the Silver Records, and….He was surrounded by everyone. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jotaro, Kakyoin, even Polnareff decided to show up.

"W-What's happening?" His head hurt real badly, it felt as if he smashed his head against the rocky ground. Oh wait, he did do that.

Jotaro, who had a visible cuts and bruises, showed the hint of a smile. "Who wants to tell him?"

"We..." Kakyoin started to say, taking deep breaths.

Yang, still half-clutching her closed wound, "We..."

Then everyone, at the same time, shouted:

"We won!"

Josuke's eyes went wide, and a grin was plastered on his face. He suddenly turned around, towards what was the resting ground of the Silver Records, and...All they were was a bunch of broken, empty pieces. "Ho-holy crap, guys. We just took down an entire cult by ourselves!"

Ruby, out of everyone, had the most worried look. She decided against telling everyone outside of the Team about the Ultimate Elixir. She didn't want to ruin the moment, she felt as if they deserved, at least for that moment, the taste of victory.

"I don't know what the hell you did, Josuke, but suddenly, one by one, those Records started breaking by themselves, and even Star Platinum couldn't scratch it." Kakyoin quickly lift him up and gave him a pat on the back. "Without you, me and Jotaro would probably be dead."

Josuke grinned. "It was like something out of a shonen manga, trust me, it was really cool."

Everyone talked and laughed about this and that, in what was once enemy territory. And at that moment, every single one of them felt at peace.

However, that peace didn't last for long.

Josuke laughed at one of Polnaref's rather distasteful jokes involving the so-called 'combat skirts', and looked down at the ground, and at that moment he glanced at his hands: They were glowing slightly, and what seemed like golden dust started to fall from his hands. "Huh, what's this?"

"What's what?" Yang looked over at the hands, and tilted her head in confusion. "I'm...not sure."

The others got a bit closer and stared at his hands. None of them could really come up with an idea on what it was.

"It means..." A cheerful, distant voice suddenly stated. It was a foreign voice, not one the group was accustomed to hearing. A man in the robes of the Silver Records cult stepped out of the elevator, and slowly approaching them.

"Another one?" Jotaro stood up, taking out his Star Platinum.

"Oh my! There's no need for punches right now. Trust me, I'm not one of them, I just...took his form." There was something very off about the way he moved around, and the way he looked...it felt...unnatural, inhuman, but they couldn't quite grasp why.

"The reason for that, Josuke Higashikata." He spun flamboyantly, and pointed at Josuke. "Is because you fulfilled your purpose in this world."

"Pur...pose?" Ruby muttered. It felt...familiar, he heard of that before, on those notes The Door left them with. He tried to recall it from her memory. She had been so occupied with so much stuff that it slipped out of her mind.

**The ones not of this world have a purpose, a meaning, an objective. Only once their objective is complete will they find a way back to their world. The boy from both the future and the past must stop the ever-spinning Records to return to his hometown.**

"The hell does that mean?" Josuke shouted and stood up...and then noticed that his feet were started falling off that golden dust, unnaturally going through his shoes and disappointing as soon as they hit the ground.

"It means...There's no reason for you to stay in this world anymore! Hooray, you'll be yanked back to your world and your time, and you'll never be able to come back here again!"

"W-What…?" The group's eyes went wide from the sudden revelation. The bluntness of the man was like that of a kid, seemingly unaware that it could hurt others.

"How could you know that? Who are you?!" Blake shouted, taking out her weapon.

"There's no reason for you to know why I know or why you should know who I am." He giggled mischievously. "You'll all find out in due time, I'm sure. Except poor Josuke boy there."

The glowing started to get more intense, starting to spread over his hands and up his arm, more and more dust start to fell down.

"What? No! He can't leave us right now! You're lying!" Ruby was in complete denial. It was too much shock for one day, she couldn't withstand any more.

The mysterious man tilted his head like a bird. "Oh? You don't want to let him go? How selfish of you, Ruby Rose. And I may be a trickster, but this is no lie. Isn't that right, Josuke Higashikata?"

He started turning his arms around. He saw right before his eyes the tip of his fingers dissapearing, but they didn't feel...'gone', it was like they were in a different place. It was an odd feeling he couldn't quite explain.

"I...think that guy's telling the truth."

Ruby ran over to him, looking at his hand. "What should we do then?" She said half panicked, this was not a time for goodbyes.

"How can we make it stop?" Polnareff turned around, staring intensely at the mysterious man.

"You're all acting as if he's got a bomb strapped to his heart, and is just about to die right in front of your eyes. That's not the case, he's just about to return to his world, I don't understand why you all are freaking out like this."

"B-Because..."

The man didn't even bother listening to her. He turned around, and started walking to the elevator. "There's no way to stop this. Better say your goodbyes while you can."

He started to walk towards the elevator, but Yang was already running towards him. "Stop right there, who are you?!"

The elevator doors closed off on him, and he flashed the group a creepy toothed smile. "We'll meet again at the end of your journey..." His eyes glanced over someone, that someone being…."Jotaro Kujo."

Yang stopped as soon as the elevator started moving. She could run after him, she could try and find out who he was but...She realized, she realized why he looked so creepy and off…

"He...had no shadow."

* * *

The group circled around Josuke. It didn't take long till his feet were 'whisked away' too. He laid on the ground, as more and more dust fell from him. Ruby was the one that was closest to him, she sat right beside him and tried her best to not get caught up in the moment. She stared at the ground.

"Aww, come on. If you're gonna cry, I'm not sure I'll be able to say goodbye properly."

The others stared at him silently, a mixture of emotions shown in their faces: Fear, sadness, rage. Jotaro, however, simply stared, with his usual, analyzing stare.

His hands were no more, and his lower arms were next. Ruby sobbed slightly, not showing her face to the others, but it was obvious tears were falling down her cheeks.

Josuke had a sweet, gentle smile on him. "Come on, what are ya crying for? It's not like I'm dying or anything. I'm going back to Morioh."

"H-How can you be so sure about that…?" Ruby muttered. "Anything could happen, and we wouldn't know…If I didn't feel scared and sad for you, what kind of friend would I have been?"

"You're...You're such a kindhearted girl, Ruby. You care so much about someone who you've met for such a short while." It was all Josuke could muster. He didn't want to admit that he, too, was on the verge of shedding tears. He was incredibly torn. If he came back to Morioh, he could've met his mom, his friends, and finish up the unfinished business with that man...but he would have never seen Team RWBY or that mysterious, strange world ever again.

Everyone kept silent. Some, like Blake, Polnareff, and Kakyoin, shed some tears too. It was that fear, that uncertainty of what would happen to him that got to them, it got to them all.

The glow started to spread more, and more, and more. Until only a head remained.

"Take care, Ruby. Your story still...isn't over."

And just like that, he was gone in a cloud of golden dust.

…

…

…

Jotaro turned around and headed for the elevator.

"What are you doing?" Weiss asked.

He didn't stop, he walked over to the elevator.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Irritated, she approached him. "Do you even think before you act? Or maybe you are some sort of stone wall that can't feel emotions, huh? One of your allies is gone, he has disappeared, and we don't know if he made it out or not. Don't you have any-"

He clenched his fist and looked down, he said nothing.

Before she knew it, Weiss too started crying.

And in that wide, cavernous room, only the sound of sobs remained.

* * *

The return to the surface didn't felt as triumphant as before. They all looked down and didn't say a word. One by one they climbed the rope stairs to the surface, and popped out in the half-destroyed hidden church.

_Fwuwuwuwuwuwuwu_

"What's...that noise?" Kakyoin looked up, it sounded like...an engine, an airship's engine.

They slowly walked outside in the ice-filled wasteland and gazed upwards. One, two, three airships were flying just slightly above the ground, each and every one of them with the Atlas insignia on their sides.

The group lined up to look at the scene wide-eyed. "They...found us?" Ruby muttered as she stepped forward. Several soldiers jumped down the airships and cautiously pointed their guns towards them. But a voice called out before the group could act: "Stop, they're not hostiles."

A tall figure jumped down the airship and slowly made their way towards the group. It was General James Ironwood.

"What...is the meaning of this?" He pointed a gloved finger at the church.

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. And so ends the absolute longest chapter to date, and the Silver Records Arc with it. What did you think about it? Was the emotional scene okay? Was it a bit over-the-top, or maybe not enough? I would love to hear the opinion of everyone who catch up to the story this far.
> 
> 2\. Actually, there's still a snippet I want to write about a character introduced during this (very long) Arc. That will be next chapter and will formally wrap up a few loose ends.


	66. Endgame

A woman sighed, her figure hid behind the waterfall she was hiding in. The cave was small, and unfit for someone like her. Her Gothic outfit was stained by dirt and mud. Her hand shook as she held onto the Scroll, which displayed a single message:

" _My dear daughter:_

_If you are reading this automated message, it means I already passed away. It was inevitable that one day I would die, and that all the sacrifices I made would have piled heavily on my shoulders. It is my wish for you to not continue those sacrifices after my passing, let all anger and grief wash away. Live out a normal life, and never look back on your old one made out of blood and murder. I beg of you._

_-From your dear fool of a father, Bronzo Argento._ "

Fiore Argento trembled at the thought of her father's corpse, she was ocnfused, was it the truth? Or was it all a lie, and a scheme just to make her grief? Either way, she was stranded on another continent entirely, and all communications from the HQ very recently got cut out. Her life as a Hunter of Humans was all over.

She thought about her brother, that lived and died for the Silver Records. She didn't want to meet his horrible, bloody end.

She slowly stood up, grabbing her cane, and slowly stepped out of the and stepped out of the cave, facing the sunlight. She took a deep, deep sigh.

"I guess I'll live as normally as I can, father..."

The woman named Fiore Argento did not exist from that point on, she would have been a completely different person.

She never saw Team RWBY or the Stand Users again.

* * *

The group rounded up inside the military airship's interior, General Ironwood sat right in front of them, hearing their explanation. "So you're telling me there was a cult residing in Atlas...and you never bothered to contact the security or the army? Or even notify me, the Headmaster of Atlas?"

"We only knew of its location at the last second, and there was no time to...explain, we had to at quickly and covertly." Weiss stated, sitting elegantly on her seat alongside the others.

"What I still don't understand is why you, of all groups of people, had to deal with this."

Jotaro tried remembering the first time he stumbled onto the Silver Records's secrets. "I...accidentally bumped one of their hideouts inside the sewers of Vale, a large frog Grimm laid there undetected, catching unsuspecting people before probably being used as sacrifices by the cult. From that point on those guys have been all over us, we just knew too much."

Ironwood nodded along, he didn't really know if he was supposed to be astonished, amazed or angered at those teenagers (and one adult)'s bravery that bordered on the foolish.

"That still does not explain one thing. You mentioned you met Josuke Higashikata, but I clearly don't see him with you."

Ruby looked over at the others as Ironwood's eyes scanned each and every one of them, waiting for an answer as they flew over the ocean.

"He..." Ruby started speaking up, as the leader of Team RWBY she felt that she had the one that had to bring the news to him, but...would telling the whole truth be really better? It would make him ask questions as to how or why, things they couldn't really explain. "He's not here any more." She looked down, knees touching each other as she said it.

She expected Ironwood to be furious and to scream, but...he simply sighed and looked down. "I suspected as much when I didn't saw him with you. I'm sorry I asked that question, it must have been mentally devastating for...everyone involved, I'm sure. I guess that boy just...didn't have enough power in himself to survi-"

Before Ironwood finished his sentence, Ruby suddenly stood up, a furious look in her eyes. "You knew nothing about him! Josuke has a big heart, and had a power that none of us had. He was one of the most strong-willed persons I've met, and even when he disappeared he thought about us! So how can you say that about him?!"

Weiss had her mouth agape at Ruby's sudden outburrst. "Ruby...What has gotten into you?"

They all stared at her, the usually half-shy but adventorous Ruby Rose suddenly looked more angry than they thought was possible for her. She tried holding back tears, but one still fell down her cheek.

Polnareff sighed, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly before a sudden realization dawned on him: "Ruby...don't tell me...you had a-"

Jotaro turned around and gave him a burning stare, knowing exactly what he was going to say. "Don't you dare say it. This conversation is over." He stated in a commanding tone. The thing they least needed at that moment was more drama to deal with.

Ruby kept staring at ironwood, before slowly sitting back down, averting her gaze from the Headmaster.

He cleared his voice, and looked away. "I'll drop you all off at Beacon, I have some matters to discuss with Professor Ozpin anyhow."

The rest of the trip back to Vale was thankfully quiet.

* * *

Night had settled in, and most students had retreated back into their quarters to get a good night's sleep. But not them. They sat around a silent, empty park of Vale.

Ruby laid her head down into the grass and stared of at the broken moon up above, she had just finished explaining the others the existance of the 'Ultimate Elixir'.

Polnareff gritted his teeth, punching the ground. "Damn it. We can't let anything like that come even close to Dio!"

"We need to find it as soon as possible. The Master of the Silver Records mentioned something about a courier of sorts, right? If we manage to track him down, we can stop him before it gets to Dio." Weiss observed, resting her hands on her lap as she sat on a bench.

"Well, does anyone here have any clues?" Yang took a look around, seeing

Everyone went silent, nobody had a single idea on where the courier could be. Kakyoin sighed, crossing his arms before speaking up: "As much as I would like that, I fear it's...impossible. Remnant's just too big and dangerous for us to explore without any clues, for all we know by the time we even find a sliver of a clue it might be too late."

Ruby sat up, tilting her head. "So, what do you suggest we do?"

He stared up at the sky, "We play the hardest game of all." He started, resting his back on the bench he was sitting on. "The waiting game."

"Oh..." She didn't want to admit it, but it was really the only choice they had at the moment.

Yang blinked, and turned her head around. "Wait a minute, where did Jotaro go? He was here while Ruby explained the situation."

"He went back to the school said he had something he had to do." Polnareff sighed and shook his head. "That guy..."

**Meanwhile:**

Jotaro strolled through the front gates, for the, albeit brief moment he went back to the school, he had heard an...interesting rumor, one of the nurses at the academy's mini-hospital could apparently heal up any wounds and give you incredibly effective medicine if you talked to her during the night.

The door of the hospital creaked open, and he peeked in. It was lit up, but there was an eerie silence that permeated the place. He took a few steps inside and shut the door behind him, looking around catiously.

Footsteps, he heard footsteps coming from one of the doors, then it slowly opened...And a feminine figure walked out, with long wildly colored hair. She had a smile on her face, and didn't seem to notice Jotaro at first, until she turned around.

"Ah!" She shouted, stepping back, "I-It's you!"

"I should have figured it was you. Nurse Skye, was it? The first Stand User I met."

"S-Stand? I-Is that hwat you call it? I'm sorry that I attacked you, but I wasn't in control, I swear! M-My memory's a blur, but I remember you beating me to a pulp, p-please don't do that again!"

Jotaro stepped forward. "I have no intentions to do that. Let me guess, you've been using your Stand as a way to create medicines, haven't you?"

Slowly, a goop, shadowy figure appeared behind the scared nurse, and there it was: t.A.T.u, with its myriads of tattoos on its body and big gaping hole at the center of its mouth. "Y-Yeah, I found out that I can create all kinds of medicines by putting temporary tattoos on people, but I've done nothing else with it, I swear."

He stepped up to her, crossings his arms together. "Would you even be able to make a medicine that can...amplify the power and durability of a Stand?"

She, again, took a few steps back. "Y-You mean like some sort of...super-steroid?" She asked with wide eyes. "I-I dunno! I never really tried doing that. My….'Stand' has the power to create a tattoo out of a 'concept', and when that tattoo is attached to the body, it acts like the real thing, so...possibly."

Jotaro suddenly took off his uniform, and extended his arm towards her. "I want you to give one to me, but not one that acts now, I want to...store it, should the need arise."

Skye looked over at the arm, and then back at him. She was surprised on how much that boy trusted her. "I...ah, something like that could have grave effects on your body, it's not really something I can predict, you know."

He shook his head, "I don't care, do it." He commanded.

She shivered a bit.  _So scary…_

The Stand's hand slowly reached out, and a black-and-white syringe started forming in its fingers, slowly it attached the tattoo to his arm, and it stuck. The large syringe, however, also had something layered on top of it...a lock tattoo, with a five-letter combination on it, which displayed: 'AAAAA'.

He looked over at his arm, and placed a finger on top of one of the As, he pushed his finger upwards, and the letter rolled with it, in its stead a B appearing. "Let me guess: This lock is here so I don't accidentally put the super-steroid in my bloodstream, correct?"

She nodded, "Correct, you'll have to enter the password if you want to use it." She took a few cautious steps forward, leaned into his ear, and whispered the password.

* * *

The white-haired, dark-eyed woman sat down onto her large chair, wearing wicked smile on her face. Cinder Fall stood at her side. "Ah, Doctor Watts, what brings you here?"

Doctor Watts, with his slender, snake-like frame, walked over to her, and gave a little bow out of respect. "I would be out in the fields, but I fear a little...incident occurred right here."

"Explain." She simply said, looking over at him with curiosity.

"One of our…." He hesitated "'dear' associates has been brutally murdered….right here. The Door, was it? Well, his head was surely split open like one."

Salem's smile turned into a scowl. "If this is a 'joke', I ask of you to drop the act right now."

"I'm afraid that's not the case. Someone broke the Stand Arrow, and the same one probably killed the poor man right here under our noses. That would mean...there is a traitor in our midst." He looked over at Cinder, smiling under his moustache as always, "We know you didn't like the chap, Miss Fall. So I would believe you're a prime suspect."

She crossed her gloved arms, "How dare you even imply I would betray you all." She didn't seem...shocked, at the very least, unlike Salem.

But that simply was, because, she had a prime suspect as well.

"Well, Cinder..." Salem started with a smile, trying to hide her...irritation at her Stand plan seemingly being foiled. "Do you have any ideas on who the betrayer might be?"

She turned heel, and started walking towards the front door, bumping past Watts. "Oh yes, yes I do..." Her hand started to slowly conjure up flames…

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1:This will be the last chapter of 2017. Crazy to think this fanfic has been going on for about a year, huh?


	67. The Ultimate Elixir

"Here it is, lord Dio..." The right-hand-man of Dio, once a military officer of Atlas called Steele, and last Stand User remaining at his disposal, stepped in front of him, holding onto his hand an object covered by a thick layer of red satin.

While Steele was controlled by a flesh bud when he was handed over to Dio...he had it no more. His loyalty to Dio was real. What could drive a man to serve under someone like that out of their own will?

Dio spun around, putting his hands on his hips, as flamboyant as ever. "Ah, finally. I was getting quite bored of waiting.

Steele kneeled down in respect, and handed him the object.

Carefully, with a long-nailed finger, he turned the satin over, exposing the object within: A vial of swirling black fluid, that occasionally flashed with various colors: Silver, green, platinum, pink, and much much more.

He carefully picked it up with two fingers, raising it at eye level. "So this is the 'Ultimate Elixir' that man was talking about...it's like water tainted by pure malice." He said with a smile.

Steele carefully raised his head, facing him. "I am not one to question you, lord Dio, but is it truly safe to drink...that thing?"

Dio let out a roaring laugh. "There's not one poison in this world or the next that could harm my immortal body." He pulled away the cork, a fanged grin appearing on his face as he raised and tilted the vial.

The Elixir fell down inside his mouth like a waterfall, and he downed it in one single gulp, like a drunkard drinking his first beer of the night.

At first, nothing happened. Dio looked down at his hands with a disappointed look on his face...Then, he felt it: an explosive pain on his chest, like a grenade was going off inside his lung.

His hands and arms started darkening. On instinct he summoned The World, but the body of his Stand started darkening as well.

_Crick….crack….crick….crack..._

Steele stood up a worried expression taking over his face, rushing over to him: "Lord Dio!"

It burned intensely. It was a pain that Dio only felt when he was on the brink of true death. He gripped at his chest, gritting his teeth and let out an unnatural scream:

" **WRYYYYYYYYY!** "

* * *

**The Next Day:**

Cinder folded her arms as she glanced upwards at the building. The mansion stood out like a sore thumb in the open field that surrounded it. And not only it was huge, but it was also ruined and abandoned-looking, to keep the facade that it truly was uninhabited.

"A lavish but decrepit mansion. Ha, how fitting." She couldn't help but comment.

It was the middle of the day, simply the perfect time for her to wander in and, in her mind, unthreatened. That man was only an annoyance to her, a side effect of one Salem's failed experiments of creating a personal army of Stand Users loyal to her.

Dio Brando was simply enough a cancer that had to be...surgically removed.

Her hand hovered to the front door's handle, but suddenly stopped. Dio probably knew she was over there, he could've prepared any sorts of traps. Her hand started to heat up, and she raised it over to the door.

A blast of fire from her hand burned the door to ashes, and allowed some light to enter the dark, dark entrance of the mansion.

She slowly stepped in the darkness, heels clacking against the rotting wooden pavement. She extended her arm slightly, and a faint fire hovered her gloved palm, letting out a weak light that at least allowed her to see what was around her.

She looked around the entire first floor: The abandoned, empty kitchen, the broken bathroom, one of the three bedrooms of the mansion. Nothing. She rushed up the stairs and looked around, ready to attack: Nothing.

At that point she began doubting herself a little as she took a few steps up the mansion. Did she pick out the worst time to get to the mansion? Could he have gone elsewhere?

Her doubts washed away as she headed for the last room: A shoddy living room at the third floor.

Wide, large, with a couch, a library, a little coffee table, and a broken TV nobody bothered to fix. And there he sat on that couch, casually reading a book as his figure was hidden in the darkness.

"You killed your own summoner, hmm?" She smiled, laying her shoulder on the door. "You really are a chronic backstabber. Let me guess, you can't stand even remotely being controlled by someone else, right? You want to act like a big boy, at the top of the world."

Silence. Dio turned a page, not bothering to face her.

She frowned slightly: "You've been quite a problem to Salem, you know? I think it's time for you to...disappear. Or better yet..."

She pointed her arm at him...And then at the ceiling wooden ceiling right above him. "Disintegrate."

More and more heat started accumulating in her hand, before suddenly exploding in a beam of flames that destroyed the frail wooden roof, letting debris fly. The light of the sun started shining down inside the room, and Cinder smiled triumphantly as Dio was bathed in that light.

However...nothing happened. She stared wide eyes as Dio sat there, hit by the sunlight, but nothing happened to him.

He seemed...different too, his skin seemed even whiter and paler than ever before, and his blond hair seemed almost...white.. He slowly closed his book, and stood up. "Oh, is that so?"

He did a backflip over the couch and suddenly turned around, facing Cinder before she could act.

And then, she was paralysed by the sight: Long, silver hair, pale skin, purple veins running along his face. He looked too much like  _her_. "No...this….is not possible." She started trembling at the sight of his muscular, unnatural body.

His lack of a shirt made it even more terrifying. His torso was covered in ugly unnatural purple veins, big and small. Coupled with the scar that ran through the middle of his torso and his neck..

Well...for the first time in a long, long time, she was truly afraid of someone. He let out an immeasurable amount of malice one could almost smell it. The kind of malice you just can't reason with, an unstoppable malice made to just make other people suffer.

"Do you feel fear?" He whispered as he took a few steps forward, his footsteps resounding heavy in the living room. He had a devilish smile on his face, staring down at Cinder.

"Good, let that fear swallow you whole. Your fear will be my sustenance. I'm no longer human, nor a vampire, I'm something beyond all of that. It may be cliché to say but...I truly do feel like a god."

She gritted her teeth. She was truly losing her cool. Cinder did not expect anything like this, and anger and fear was starting to get better of her. Before she knew it, words started flowing out of her mouth: "How...dare you...EVEN REMOTELY RESEMBLE HER, YOU PIECE OF GARBAGE!"

She raised her arm in an attempt to launch a jet of fire to his face. Flame started forming out of her open palm, but…

A dark figure formed out of thin air. She felt something resembling a fist smashing against her palm. Her concentration was broken and stopped gathering heat. Her arm trembled as that oppressive force pressed it down. She tried resisting it with all her force, but…

_crack_

Her arm bended unnaturally as the bone snapped. She let out an anguished scream and fell down to one knee.

_What is this power?!_ She screamed inside her head this question over and over. Her breathing was pained and her arm was dangling lifelessly to the side. It was a power she just couldn't hope to match in that situation. She had to flee, confront him when stronger, yes, she should do that, just...escape.

A dark fist cleaved through her chest, and grabbed her beating heart, and gripped it.

"Aaaa….aaa..." Her voice became nothing more than gasps of pain. She looked down, her body trembling, to see that dark hand passing through her chest and gripping her most vital organ.

"N….NO!" she screamed in pure desperation. The grip to her heart tightened. It was painful, like she was being slowly suffocated. Her heartbeat started slowing slowly, her consciousness started drifting away. He could crush her heart right there, but didn't, he wanted to see her suffer, to see her desperation, her fear as she faced death.

And all with that stupid, smug smile on his face.

That was the last thing she saw before she died. Her heart stopped, and for good measure the dark Stand with a little finger snapped her aorta in half, to let out any possibility of her coming back to life.

Her body slammed against the ground with a thud, her face contorted in a mixture of anger and fear.

He licked his lips. "Such fear...I never thought negative emotions could...taste so great. Millions of times better than the blood of any man or woman."

His new Stand stood there, hand dripping blood. At first, Dio was slightly dissapointed by its new look: It resembled The World in all ways, same stature, body-type...But instead of that glorious golden, it was replaced with absolute darkness. It was like it was dipped into a large bucket of black paint.

But that disappointment was eliminated after he saw what its new ability was…

"An excellent performance, Lord Dio." Steele went out of the shadows and turned to his master. Spinning his revolver around.

"Hehehe..." He laughed under his breath. "Salem's plans...are now simply a mess. Without her, and without the Fall Maiden's power her plans are doomed. It seems even someone as 'powerful' as her had her plans destroyed by a simple betrayal."

He covered his eyes with and let out a long, long laugh, before taking a deep breath and tightening one hand into a fist. No matter what, he was always a sucker for these theatrical poses. "And as more time passes, even she will be nothing more than rubbish to put in the trash."

His darkened Stand looked back, and quickly disappeared. "Have you thought of a new name for it yet, Lord Dio?"

"Hmm, yes..." He turned around and put two fingers on his chin. "This Stand will allow me to reach absolute power, absolute security, absolute control, absolute everything." He started, looking a the mostly empty library in front of him. "Buddhist monks take their whole lives to reach an afterlife of pure stillness, silence, security. And I must say, that idea is quite enticing even to someone like myself."

He raised his right arm dramatically. "Yes, I will call this Stand: 'Nirvana'."

Steele nodded. "A wonderful name, as expect of you, my Lord."

Dio stepped over to Cinder, and smiled, before turning back to Steele. "What remains of her bodily energy should be enough to power your Stand. Yes, Steele?"

Steele wandered over to the corpse of Cinder, and then crouched, positioning a hand over her body. The hand started to glow slightly, and some type of energy, like static electricity went out of Cinder's body and gathered up to his palm, gathering into a circle imprinted in his palm.

He clenched his fist and the bizarre energy stopped. Then, he stood up. "Good news, my Lord: My Stand...is finally ready to be summoned."

"Hahaha….hahahaha...HAHAHAHAHA!" Dio laughed and tilted his head upwards, uncaring that any could hear him. What could they do to stop him anyway? With a wickedly joyful expression on his face, like a kid that wanted to play with a new toy of his, he spoke up: "Finally! Let's begin..."

"Let's begin to plunge this world into the darkest abyss. Let their fear, hate, anguish and pain fuel my growing power!" He rambled like an escaped mental asylum patient.

Steele grinned with him. "I will be with you till death, Lord Dio. We'll show these corrupt 'Kingdoms' what true despair is!"

* * *

**Deep, deep underground Beacon Academy:**

A large, imposing machine lays at the end of a long, green hallway. Two capsules lay near one another, one empty, and one containing a young woman: The Fall Maiden.

Or what remained of her anyway. With half her power stolen and severely wounded she could do nothing but be hooked up to that Atlas machine, waiting, sleeping.

However, suddenly and with no explanation, she felt her eyes open. She started panicking, where was she? What was she doing there? She felt a surge of power filling up inside her: Magic.

Her full power was coming back to her, but she couldn't withstand it in that condition. She groaned and started struggling around, crying out for help.

But nobody was there to listen to her.

The machine started to burn intensely, unable to withstand all that uncontrollable magic. Her pod was surrounded by fire. Pain was shooting through her body at an alarming rate. She had to move, escape, do something…

The fire started to fill her view. She hanged her head low not even able to move a muscle, and…

Then the fire slowly faded, and she died.

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. With this chapter the final arc has finally begun. Don't worry, there's still quite a lot of planned chapter before this fanfic can properly end. I hope you stick around till the end.


	68. Unidentified Malevolent Object

Professor Ozpin folded his hands over the head of his cane. He stared at the other side of the room intensely, tapping his finger rhythmically,

His students came back mostly well, and proved their strength by dismantling an entire covert organization he had no knowledge of. Everything seemed to have returned to peace in the kingdom, the rate of disappearances kingdom-wide drastically and suddenly halved, If not more.

But even then, what was that pit in his stomach? That undeniable feeling of dread entered the mind of the Headmaster and it just wouldn't go away. He placed a hand on his forehead and shook his head.

He looked down at the desk, but suddenly the door slammed open, and he looked upwards.

Professor Glynda Goodwitch entered the room in a rush, almost stumbling on her heels. She was sweating from nervousness, and breathing intensely. "Th….The..." She tried forcing herself to say.

Ozpin raised a hand to calm her down, with a completely serious look on his face. What could have shocked Professor Goodwitch to that point?

She took deep breaths, in and out, in and out, before slowly approaching the desk. "The...The Fall Maiden...She...I don't know how or WHY, but she's dead."

And just like that, a piece of his worst nightmares was slowly forming itself.

* * *

**One Hour Later**

Ozpin circled around the desk nervously. The holographic screen at his desk lighting up, and Ironwood's face popped up.

"James, we...have a problem. A huge unexpected problem."

Ironwood shook his head. "I already know, Ozpin. Glynda already told me...well, briefly. Just what the hell happened? How did she die? Was there a secret attack?"

"No, nothing like that. That...machine of yours suffered from a huge energy spike, and burst into flames. Amber was unable to contain that power, and suffered a heart attack inside the machine that was supposed to keep her alive."

Ironwood, along with Ozpin, was incredibly nervous. This wasn't exactly the best week for him, and this news was like pushing a gas station inside a fire. But still, he tried keeping his cool. He had set a temporary residence in Vale for the exact purpose of keeping a close watch on the Maiden. What an awful coincidence to be caught in. "Again...how?"

"And again, I'm not fully sure. The machine was operating fine. But I know one thing for sure...It was magical energy."

Ironwood looked down, cupping his chin before his head tilted up in realization. "Wait...you don't mean..."

Ironwood tentatively asked: "The one that stole the power from Amber...died?"

"That is the main suspicion, yes." Ozpin didn't miss a beat.

"But..." He hesitated in saying the rest of the phrase, disgusted that he could even remotely consider the death of a Maiden a good event. "That means that the power thief is no longer a threat, right? That means that the power of the Fall Maiden will not fall on wrong hands."

Ozpin sat back down, and instead of answering took a deep breath, and stared at the screen with half-lidded eyes…

"Ozpin?" Ironwood called out.

"I'm hearing you, I am just...deep in thought."

"We need to find the next Fall Maiden as soon as possible, before the enemy can track her down."

At that, Ozpin suddenly stood up from his chair. "We don't have time, James. We must postpone our search."

Ironwood went wide-eyed at that answer. He never saw Ozpin react like that, in such a...panicked way.

"I have a feeling that something horrible is about to happen, James. Your army is stationed here, right?"

Ironwood nodded.

"Then tell them to station here at Vale. Soldiers, huntsmen, Knights, gather as many as you can here. I'll call Qrow and tell him to get back to Vale, the more we are, the better our chances."

James Ironwood just stared at Ozpin at the other side of the screen. He couldn't believe his eyes, had Ozpin finally gone completely insane?

Yet, despite thinking that, he just couldn't bring himself to refuse him. "Before I hand out the orders...Did you inform Qrow of what happened to Josuke? He was the first one to find the boy."

Ozpin sighed and looked down. "Yes, but it felt...odd, it was like he forgot that he called me when he informed me of what was happening to Josuke right under our noses. The call that allowed you to take him in." He shook his head. "This is not the time for that. We can solve that issue when we meet in person. For now focus on gathering as much military forces as you can."

He sat back down onto his chair, and turned around around with a melancholic look on his face. "This city...no

* * *

, this world, is on the edge of destruction. A force nothing could have predicted could wash over us at any minute, and drag us down into its depths..."

"You're all baaaaack!" Nora pounced forward and wrapped her arms around Ruby, lifting her up and embracing her into a tight hug.

"A-Aagh..N-Nora, y-you're..."

"Whoops!" She let go, and turned around to face team JNPR, and then back at her. They just met inside the cafeteria, and the team surrounded the poor lone leader like wolves surrounding a bunny. Well, even they weren't full, as Jaune was nowhere to be seen. "We were all so worried! Where did you go?"

She let out a deep breath, rubbing her arm. "A little...vacation at Atlas, let's put it at that."

Pyrrha walked forward with her usual cheery smile and patted Ruby on the head. "I hope you all enjoyed yourselves!"

"H-Hehe...it was... a bit rough." She said and backed away from the pats.

"Try to invite us next time, okay?" Ren crossed his arms, but had a pleasant smile on his face. "Speaking of invitations...Where's the rest of your team?"

Ruby walked over to the table and attempted to hold onto four lunch packages at the same time. One or two threatening to slip from her hands and go splat on the ground. "Oh, we're not eating here, we're going to celebrate our return in our dorm! I'm just getting some food to go for the rest of the team. That's what leaders do!"

"Sure wish  _our_ leader was as responsible as that." Nora said jokingly and gave out a childish giggle.

"Now now," Pyrrha started, sounding like a mother dealing with her kids, "Jaune's doing his best back to town. He sacrificed his lunch time to get some utensils for us."

Ruby tilted her head. "Utensils? Like wha-ah!" Nora quickly picked up the falling package of food and handed it back to the distressed Ruby.

"You're welcome." Nora smiled smiled and sat back down. She stretched slightly, letting out a yawn. "Well, he's out getting a new pair of headphones, pots and pans for Ren, some tools for sharpening blades, casings for my grenades, books, groceries, some extra Dust... Y'know, the usual." She listed off on her fingers.

"And...you made him go all alone?"

"Yep."

"Indeed."

"Yeppers!"

Ruby couldn't help but feel sorry for that poor guy.

* * *

Jaune brought his face closer to the list as he walked down the street, which looked more like a series of indistinct squiggly lines than actual words. He stopped at the side of the road and let out a long frustrated groan.

He completely forgot what he had to buy, and the list wasn't helping at all.

He tried to recount the items in his head, but the only things that could pop in his mind were the groceries and the Dust...what else was there? Casings? But for what?

He considered smacking his forehead against a wall in order to relieve his frustration and attempt to remember, but decided that was going a bit too far.

As he stood still, a sudden squad of armed Atlasian soldiers brushed past him. He suddenly turned around, "H-Hey!"

The soldiers didn't even notice his presence, or if they did completely ignored him.

He looked down, "Rude..."

He walked once again down the street towards the nearest grocery shop, and on his way overheard a conversation that interested him…

"Hey, hey, aren't there a lot more soldiers in the streets than there used to be just a few days ago? What's up with that?"

"I mean, General Ironwood is visiting...But then again, this protection seems a bit excessive even for a Headmaster, there's almost an entire army in the city."

"No! Not only Atlas soldiers! Helluva lot of Vale soldiers too, it's like they're preparing for all out war..."

"By the gods, don't even mention something like that. We don't want a second Great War here."

"Huh...That is weird." He simply noted to himself. He encountered three whole squads of three to four soldiers just to get to the shop. He simply shrugged and went inside the shop, nothing to worry about for that moment.

**At the same time, on top of the first year dormitory's rooftop.**

The seven battle-forged companions happily looked at the sky as they ate their little rooftop picnic they prepared. It wasn't the best place for a

Ruby raised a glass of water high. "Let's drink to Josuke, since he's not here to drink with us any more." The saddened expression she had when thinking about Josuke's disappearance finally dissolved, and a serene expression took its place.

They all raised their glass, all filled with water and soda (except Polnareff's glass. He couldn't help but bring a bottle of beer) and repeated at the same time: "To Josuke!"

_**Tsakwuuuu…** _

A sudden loud zap and a rumble reverberated in the air. It sounded like lightning, but it was too, too strong for a simple lightning.

Weiss looked up after squinting her eyes and covering her ears, the noise and the rumble died down a bit, but it didn't stop. "What now?" She said, more annoyed than surprise.

"Wooaah..." Yang pointed upwards, to a specific point down at the sky. "You all see it too, right? I'm not hallucinating it, right?"

Kakyoin turned over at where she was pointing, and put on his sunglasses to see it better, he let out a single, silent 'wow'.

Polnareff scratched his massive pillar of hair and looked over inquisitively. "I'm not a hundred percent familiar on how this world works, but basing on everyone's faces, I can assume it's not normal."

Jotaro stood up and squinted his eyes, trying to see what was exactly the object of interest.

There it laid, up in the skies of Vale: A huge flash of light that seemed to form a golden disk of crackling energy. It was massive, and it hovered slightly over the border of the city. It looked like some sort of flying golden saucer.

It was confusing and mildly worrying at first, but then it started to truly form: The colour of the UFO started to change, darken, from a golden electrical colour to one as black as night in the blink of an eye. The mass of energy started to swirl upwards, into massive, house-sized spikes that began fusing together in erratic and unpredictable ways. The disk was just a platform to an even bigger, massive... _thing_.

"No...no no no! Nonono! What is that? Whaaaat is that?!" Ruby stood up, panicked and scared, but nobody around her knew how to reply to her.

Jotaro felt his hair stand to its ends. It was like a massive amount of energy briefly surged through him. He was left breathless, he couldn't believe what he was about to say: "It's...It's..."

* * *

Dozens upon dozens of people in the streets looked up at the sky. Most of them could only see the underside of the dark object, but ones who were on higher ground could tell something was going on at the top. It was unexplainable what was happening in front of their eyes. The energy at the top of the object fused and entangled together, becoming more solid, more visible, less energy and more matter. Slowly, familiar things began popping up on the surface: A crane, a slowly forming building with several windows. A huge, massive building, that twisted unnaturally in itself like a sponge twisted on two ends. But the effect it almost gave was the one of...an industrial factory. The most hellish, most unnatural factory any citizen could have seen.

The army below mobilized as panic started to spread to the people of the masses. "Stay calm! There's nothing to worry about!" they repeated, and attempted to believe that themselves. But panic would just cause more panic, which in turn would attract Grimm.

Then small holes started to form on the underside of the disk, and human sized, cocoon-like objects began falling through the holes and began to to crash into the ground with blink-and-you'll miss it speed.

People began truly panicking then. They started screaming and running away as far as they could from the wherever those things were falling to! Multiple of those 'pods' crashed onto the streets or onto rooftops. Debris from the after-impact began flying around and those object stuck to the ground.

"MOVE, MOVE!" A soldier moved his hand to signal his squad, composed of three human soldiers and four mechanical Knights. They began running forward towards the nearest of those pods, weapons in hands and ready to fire.

They circled around one of the objects in question: It truly resembled a mechanical cocoon. The black-and-purple object had four sides to it, with what looked like stained purple glass, and...something inside of it.

One of the soldiers slowly approached one of the sides, raising his dust rifles and pointing it. The glass was covered in debris. He slowly passed a hand through the glass, clearing it...And saw what was inside:

A humanoid creature, both organic and mechanical in look, laid there covered in tubes attached to the cocoon. Its face was smooth and sleek without a hint of a mouth a nose, eyes, or anything. Its body was covered with what looked like purple armor that didn't show an inch of skin, if the being even had one. Its body was also completely genderless, and it was impossible to tell one way or the other.

The two other human soldiers checked the other sides of the pods, and they too had a similiar humanoid being inside.

_Cliiiiiick_

After that sound the glass contacted open, letting out white gas that spread around the soldiers. They coughed repeatedly and stepped back, they attempted to raise their rifles again, but…

The four humanoids jumped out of their 'cells' holding strange cubic rifles. The first one rushed to the coughing soldier in front of it with predatory agility. Once close it pointed its rifle at his chest and without a single hint of hesitation pressed the trigger.

A bolt of energy shot through the soldier's chest, ripping a hole in the middle of it and leaving it gurgling blood. The being didn't hesitate to shoot him again in the head and kicking his lifeless down. The Knights instantly and silently began to fire their rifles back at the faceless soldier.

The three other humanoids began shooting and running for cover. Two knights were shot in the head, sparks flew as the kneeled over and were completely destroyed. One of the soldiers managed to get lucky and hit one in the head with a pistol.

The head twisted back from the power of the shot and it fell down, dead. Its body began turning from solid to static energy, which dissipated in the air along with its rifle. The soldier turned to the remaining soldier. "Run! Call the Commander, we're under attack!" he screamed at her.

The Atlas soldier nodded and started to make a run for it. And a second after that, the second soldier kicked on the ground from behind by a faceless soldier. "G-Guh!"

Unlike the other three, this one wielded a sabre made out of pure energy. It was something straight out of a sci-fi movie. The faceless soldier skewered the Atlasian soldier's head, stabbing through the skull and tearing the brain apart, before beheading it for good measure.

And at the same time, dozens and dozens of these pods dropped all around Vale, containing more and more of these humanoids.

And so began the chaos.

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1.For clarifications regarding the previous chapter: No, Dio did not become just like Salem, nor did he gain her same powers. He just gained a similar aesthetic due to the power of the Elixir.


	69. Boom

The sound of debris and broken glass started filling the city. Multiple units of four purple faceless soldiers walked down the streets of southern Vale. Their uncaring, blank faces showing no remorse as they shot down pedestrians dead, destroyed any objects in their path ruthlessly, and other atrocities. Screams of men and women filled the streets as the soldiers created pure chaos, completely undisturbed.

Corpses and wreckage filled the streets they passed through.

Meanwhile, a great airship landed near Vale and docked. General Ironwood rushed out and walked inside the campus of the school, where students looked around worried and confused. "Ozpin! Where the hell is Ozpin?!" He looked around. Once again, that crazy old man was right. As he looked around his eyes glanced upwards.

There in the sky it laid, that gigantic dark platform, and the ominous factory laid on top of it. Under there laid burning buildings of the southern border of Vale City.

"James." A familiar voice called out to him. Ozpin spun his cane as he walked over him.

"Ozpin!" He let out a sigh of relief, glad that nothing happened to him. "What the hell is happening?!"

He turned around. "Follow me to the lower floors of the Academy, there we will be safer. I already instructed the students to be ready for combat."

He stepped inside the Academy, and Ironwood slowly followed him, trying to ask his questions later.

A few moments later they were in an elevator going down, and down. "This place is just above the Vault, so it should be relatively safe."

"An emergency bunker, yes. Every Academy has one." Ironwood replied.

_Ding_

The doors of the elevator opened and they stepped forward. A dimly lit corridor laid in front of them. And by all means it looked like a labyrinth. It was designed so it could support about a hundred people inside it. A few Vale soldiers and adult Huntsmen and Huntresses saluted the headmasters from their small tight rooms they holed themselves in.

Ironwood looked around, noticing a few soldiers were slowly being treated to grevious wounds such as holes in the chest or...missing limbs.

"Holy...There's already this many wounded down here?"

"The attacks were concentrated on the southern border and are slowly expanding upwards. But some of the enemy capsules crashed closer to the centre of the city. The regular soldiers tried to contain the situations and barely succeeded." Ozpin explained.

He walked over a locked door, which used what looked like a fingerprint scanner. He pushed his finger on the scanner, and with a little  _ping_ the door opened.

There it revealed a large room with a long rectangular table at its centre. Akin to an emergency meeting room.

Inside there the professors of Beacon sat around, either away from the table or near it. Even Qrow was there, bending slightly over the table before looking over at the newly opened door.

"The gang's all here...well, mostly." He commented.

"Hush now, Qrow." Ozpin sat at one end of the table, and instructed Ironwood to sit at the seat near him.

"Some of us would like to know what's going on. Oz." Qrow stated. "There's dudes with weird weapons that can cut through weak enough Aura like butter out there, and they don't look friendly."

"I...I simply don't know. We don't have enough information on the enemy, I fear. Whatever they are, however, are clearly making an attempt to invade the city, and are being deployed by the dozens in pods by the floating building that suddenly appeared."

"And let me guess." Qrow interrupted, "We don't have any warships big enough to blow that place to hell and back, yeah?"

Ozpin nodded. "Even if we had I would hesitate heavily in doing it. We don't know what kind of defences that thing has, and making it crash on top of the city could cause a lot of civilian deaths as collateral damage, we must avoid that at all costs."

"So what do you suggest?" Ironwood asked.

"We must immediately evacuate any civilians that seek refuge at Beacon. The city is soon to be engulfed, and it'll become a total battlefield."

* * *

The group rushed down the stairs as soon as they could. The ground was trembling under them from the strength of those repeated pod slams.

"W-What the heck is happening?" Ruby shouted, almost falling flat on her face. Soldiers and students were huddled up inside the school grounds, each and every one of them looking as confused and preoccupied as them.

Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out from near the gates of the school. "Please, let us out!"

It was Pyrrha, along with the rest of her team...minus one: Jaune. "No can do. Headmaster's orders. Nobody gets out of here unless ordered." One of the soldiers standing near the gate stated.

"Our team leader's out there, we need to find him!" Pyrrha said with desperation in her voice.

"He's an Huntsman, right? He can take care of himself out there for a while before rescue arrives."

Pyrrha bit her lower lip, knowing full well that he wouldn't have survived a second out there without his sword and shield, which he just so happened to forget inside his dorm room when he went out.

"We're going!" Nora stated as she rudely shoved the soldiers aside and indicated her teammates to follow her. Pyrrha and Ren seemed a bit hesitant, but decide in the end that the chance of saving their leader was more important than breaking a rule. They ran forward and out of the gates.

Ruby step forward. "Let's follow them!" She declared

"What?! Why?!" A confused Polnareff asked.

"This is our only chance to get out there and see what's happening, come on!" Before the rest of the group could even say anything the leader bolted forward, running towards the gate.

* * *

"Jaune?! Jaaaune!" Pyrrha cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted his name, but there was no answer.

The bangs and the booms were getting closer by the minute. Shouts and yells could be heard from each street corner, but they had yet to see just WHAT was causing such panic. In any case, it was doubtless that this much chaos would attract Grimms, many, many Grimms. It was just a matter of time before they decided to pop up.

"Hey, what's that?" Nora pointed high, something big was plummeting down towards them, quicker and quicker, it was even bigger than the other pods.

"Look out!" Ren shouted and dragged Nora back as the big pod slammed against the side of a building, encrusting itself inside. The capsule inside slowly began to open...And a big, wide being dropped down from the pod to the ground. It resembled a large, well-built humanoid, wearing a dark purple armor and what looked like a gas mask on its face. And most of all…held up a big Gatling Gun with both hands, raising it up and pointing it at the there.

"W-Woah, hey there big guy..." Nora stepped back...before grabbing her hammer and lifting it up.

"This thing...it's not human, what is it?" Ren could tell from just a glance. Inside the glass of the gas mask laid nothing, no eyes, no nose, nothing. But then again, it didn't look like an automaton like the Atlasian Knights either…

Regardless, it had clear hostile intent, they took out their weapons.

The Gatling-wielding purple soldier pressed the trigger, and the gun quickly began rotating. The tip turned red, then yellow, before it started to fire small energy bullets towards them, or rather towards Pyrrha.

"G-Gah!" Pyrrha rushed forward with her shield out. It managed to block the 'bullets', but they just kept coming, she couldn't let go of the shield. Nora promptly launched herself forward, using a building to propel herself. She lifted her hammer up, and Ren promptly followed her.

He circled around the soldier, pointing his guns and shooting it with small bullets that jumped off its thick metal armor. However, it was a worthy enough distraction. The slow-moving, hulking humanoid tried to silently turn around and shot a volley of energy bullets at the fast moving Ren. The bullets instead shattered windows and destroyed lamp posts, cutting through them like nothing.

Nora promptly followed up with a smash on the back of the head. The pink hammer crushed the being's head, but even then it made no sound.

Instead, it suddenly let go of the Gatling gun and suddenly turned around, very much alive and punched Nora away! She let out a yelp and let go of the hammer, flew over and smashed her back against a building. She slowly stood up, a bit roughed up by the impact, "I-I'm fine!"

Pyrrha launched herself forward. Even with half a head that thing could still move, so she had to destroy all of it. Her sword started getting thinner and longer, turning into a full spear. She held the spear up and jumped up. She stabbed the spear right through the purple soldier's head, smashing through the gas mask helmet and piercing the head. Not even a single trickle of blood let out, and again the creature made no sound.

The silence was creepier than any moans of pain the soldier could do. The persistent being kept on going regardless of having a red-and-gold spear stuck in the middle of its head, and pushed Pyrrha forward, making her fall to the ground. If what happened before wasn't enough to prove that it wasn't human, then the big, gaping, but yet empty hole in its head was the last nail of the coffin.

Pyrrha skid along the ground, slowly standing up and letting out a cough.

"It just...won't fall down!" Ren run behind the now even slower being and struck it on its heavily armored back with the blades under the barrels of his guns. Nothing, it just barely dented the armour. Ren groaned at the lack of pure firepower his weapons had.

Pyrrha and Nora were just about to let out an attack together, but a sudden shadowy figure appeared and ran right in front of them, before jumping on the back of the large purple soldier.

Two blades, long dark hair with a bow on top...It was Blake. She pressed the sharpened sheath and her katana at the throat of the soldier, and quickly brought them up together, decapitating it cleanly!

Very, very cleanly, not even a slight hint of blood, nor of any internal machinery. The body slumped forward and smashed against the ground, folding around the fallen Gatling gun before it started to disappear into crackles of energies.

Blake exhaled deeply. The others simply looked at her in utter shock. "Sorry to steal your kill." She quickly stated as she looked around. "The situation's here worse than we could imagine." She frowned, she could smell blood in the air. It was distant, but it was there.

Before they could even ask a question, three other figures stepped out of the shadows. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang. They looked pretty out of breath. "Hah...hah..There's..."

"There's more of those pod things dropping from the sky, they're getting closer and closer to us." Weiss managed to say.

"Yeah, we...noticed that. I guess there's no point in asking whatever the hell those are." Nora stated, she looked back at the body, but it was gone, along with its weapon.

"Where...are the others?" Pyrrha tentatively asked.

Ruby tilted her head curiously, before understanding what she meant, then pointed up.

* * *

Jotaro, Polnareff and Kakyoin were running on top of the rooftop of the apartment complex, Jotaro at the head of the caterpillar-like formation that they formed. Jotaro jumped forward, landing on his feet on a rooftop slightly lower than the one before.

"H-Haah...They're the ones with the super agility, why do WE have to scope the situation out by jumping building to building?"

"For once...I agree with you!" Kakyoin replied, almost tripping and suffering a very bad fate hadn't Polnareff grabbed him by the wrist as they fell down the second roof. They already had been jumping from building to building for nearly half an hour, and yet they found nothing. That particular part of the city was quiet, excluding the blaring alarm that indicated that they should evacuate the city immediately and head to Beacon. Though, by the looks of it, outer parts of the city weren't as lucky. Various buildings in the distance looked burned away, were still burning, or were debris. In such a short amount of time that invader managed to make a deadly attack without anyone being prepared for it.

"What exactly are we fighting against?!" Polnareff shouted, jumping forward to another rooftop.

"I don't know for certain." Jotaro replied

"But?" Polnareff tried to incite him to say more.

"I don't know."

"Oh for fuck sake!"

"Whatever they are, we must get to the outer districts of the city. The sooner we get there the more civilians we will be able to save.

Kakyoin suddenly stopped and looked up. He tugged at Jotaro's sleeve and pointed up.

"Look, an airship."

A quick moving airship was already heading out of the city. It was big, enough to contain maybe a hundred people crammed together. The perfect emergency vehicle.

Jotaro took a breath of relief, at least some people would have been sa-

A sudden pillar of flashing green light slashed the airship in half. The airship slowly separated into two...and then exploded.

They could hear the yells of the people inside from down below. It was like a giant grotesque firework went off.

Kakyoin looked up, eyes wide open, not really sure if what he saw was real. "W-What...Where did that...come from?"

Everyone in Vale at that moment could see the first escort airship blow up in the sky, whether they were still in the city or huddled up at the Academy. It was such a big, despair inducing sight. Their only chance of escaping the city exploded, and if they tried again they would die as well, just like the hundred or so people that went inside there and hoped they could save themselves.

Ruby fidgeted in confusion, fear, then...anger. Her hands clenched into fist as she, and everyone else, imagined what kind of people were inside there. Men, women, children. People that just wanted to live a normal life, and then had that chance being horribly ripped out from their grasp from some unknown thing that shot them out of the sky.

And with the ensuing city-wide chaos and despair, finally, they arrived:

The creatures of Grimm.

[To Be Continued]-->


	70. Purple Menace

Jotaro stared off into the sky, what remained of the airship flew down at high speed. While the other two crouched down in order to avoid getting hit in the face by a flaming piece of metal, Jotaro simply stood there, observing.

"G-Gah, what're you doing?" Polnareff asked as he slowly stood up and dusted off his clothes. "This is not the time to be spacing out, y'know!"

"I need some paper, and a pen. Anywhere I could draw in would be good." he suddenly stated, Star Platinum was summoned silently behind him, staring off at the same point.

Kakyoin let out an 'oh!' and took something out of his uniform: A bunch of post-it notes and a pencil. "This should be enough, I hope?"

Polnareff raised an eyebrow and asked: "Why do you even have that stuff with you?"

Kakyoin simply shrugged as he them over to Jotaro. "I like to think of myself as someone that likes to draw. Though unfortunately I've never had the...chance to even doodle with how much stuff is happening."

Jotaro, instead of grabbing it, made Star Platinum grabbed it. Quickly he started drawing something on it, and kept staring at the sky.

A humanoid figure started to take form: small, round featureless face, thin body with what looked like armor on, metallic butterfly-like wings on its back that made the figure suspend over the air. And then...a huge, boxy cannon the size of the figure's entire body held up in both hands, with various lines running over it.

Polnareff scratched at the side of his head at the drawing, but Kakyoin gasped. "Is that...what your Stand saw in the distance? Is that what took down the airship?" This wasn't his first time seeing Jotaro using that trick, after all.

Jotaro nodded, "And if I'm correct, there's more of these 'butterflies' roaming around the city's edge." He turned around. "We need to go back to Beacon and warn them, before-"

_**SKRAA. SKRAA. SKRAA.** _

Without warning, the sky started filling up with dozens of huge Nevermores that flew high above the ground, circling around the buildings or slowly advancing towards the academy…

The streets below started trembling as more and more Grimm marched towards north. Suddenly, a pod smashed against the concrete street and immediately four faceless soldiers stepped out, pointing their guns at the three.

"I...don't think we even need a reason to go back to the Academy, let's just GO!" Polnareff shouted

"Wait, what about Ruby and the others?" Kakyoin started panicking, which wasn't good, it was a sure-fire way to attract even more Grimm to them.

He started running and patted Kakyoin on the back, "If they had some common sense they would do it too, now RUN!"

* * *

The ground was shaking, the shelves full of groceries shaking like it was an earthquake. Jaune was shaking under the register counter of the grocery shop, trying to make himself look as small as possible. Everyone else in the shop already evacuated the moment the alarm rang out, but, full of luck as he was, accidentally fell down in all the chaos and smashed his head against the ground, and passed out for a couple of minutes. A couple of minutes too many, next thing he knew he was completely alone and strange noises were the only things that he could hear from outside.

He tried his best in that case of obvious emergency, he attempted to close off the door with an half-broken shelf and tried to make as little noise as possible. He didn't even have his shield to protect himself, it was an absolute nightmare.

The barely reinforced door started trembling as something from outside started bashing against it, scratching it, even...biting it? Jaune knew exactly what that meant, Grimm penetrated the city's defences. And soon they'd come for him too.

The door suddenly broke in half, along with the shelf that was covering it, and three large and fast figures ran inside the grocery shop. Jaune  _shrieked_ in terror and covered his face as he felt the counted being lifted up and thrown away from over him.

And then, he was forced with face to face with three Beowolves, two regular ones that walked on all fours at the sides, and a huge, much more muscular and resistant looking as the head of the group. The fact it walked on two legs accentuated the sheer height.

An Alpha Beowolf, ten times more dangerous than a regular one.

Jaune felt as if his heart stopped. Oh no, oh no, oh no. He couldn't even move he couldn't feel his legs. The Alpha Beowolf liked around its lips and slowly approached the cowering Jaune, and slowly lifted him up by the hoodie.

"A-Aack..."

But then, two figures slowly walked behind the Grimm, they were humanoid! And they wielded weapons! They must have been rescuers, right? Jaune tried to speak up, but he was being slowly strangled by the Grimm.

_Help! Help!_ He wanted to shout, and then, the purple figures turned towards him...and clearly pointed their guns at him as he approached. The Grimm...were completely ignoring them, and they were ignoring the Grimm.

_Oh. Cra-_

The sound of a gunshot rang out in the air and the Alpha Beowolf suddenly staggered back and let go of Jaune. It hold onto its bleeding left eye and pushed the other beowolves back.

The purple soldiers robotically turned around and pointed their guns at the entrance of the store. A woman with fiery red held up in a ponytail and wielding a golden rifle and a shield was crouching down next to the broken down door.

Jaune, his back smacked against the ground, couldn't even see what was happening, his view blocked by the counter. "H-Hah..." He felt like he was going to pass out any minute now.

The purple soldiers immediately began firing upon Pyrrha, but she swatted the bullets of energy away with her golden shield and shot at the attackers with incredible precision. The bullets of dust smashed through their hollow heads and went out at the other side, creating an eye-sized hole in the middle. From the sound it made it was like shooting a bucket.

The purple soldiers turned into static energy that quickly dissipated. With furrowed eyes Pyrrha shouted: "I found him, get in here!"

Jaune tried moving its head up as soon as he heard that familiar voice, but stopped as soon as he noticed the Alpha growling and jumping towards Pyrrha!

But another figure jumped through the entrance, and a big grenade-powered hammer smashed square into the chest of the Alpha ans sent it flying several meters back and smash through the wall with a whimper!

"U-Uh?" He turned around as he slowly stood up. "H-Huuuuh?!"

Nora was standing there, gave him a quick nod, and with a smile jumped towards the hole in the wall, proceeding to smash the Alpha over and over in the head!

Another thinner figure jumped through one of the windows wielding two green guns with blades under the barrels. Ren slashed away at the two weaker Beowolves with the green blades, tearing their limbs before quickly decapitating them.

He took a deep breath and looked behind himself. "Are you okay?" He asked in his usual calm voice.

Jaune's heart was beating a mile a minute and his expression was a mix of confusion, bewilderment and happiness. He let out an incoherent mumble and stared at him wide eyed as a reply.

"Aiii-YA!" Nora raised her hammer like it was a golf club and promptly smashed it against the side of the Beowolf's face. The head went flying out into the other aisle of the shop and splatted on a wall. She swiftly turned around. "Question number one: 'What's happening?'"

"W-What's happening?" Jaune pressed his hands onto the counter to support himself, he was sweating bullets.

"Called it."

Pyrrha jumped in front of him and grabbed hold of his wrist. "Vale is under attack. We need to go back to Beacon."

"I..ah..wha..."

Jaune was suddenly raised off the ground and Pyrrha began hauling him on top of her shoulder. "I'll bring Jaune to safety, you two go help out Ruby and the others outside!"

* * *

They were surrounded. Plain and simple. Grimms and purple soldiers circled around the four, and they just kept coming.

"Damn it, they just don't end!" Weiss exclaimed in frustration as her rapier parried a purple soldier's energy sabre and promptly stabbed it in the chest, before quickly pulling it out and stabbing the ground behind her, creating an ice spike that stabbed an Ursa and killed it instantly.

The moment they've begun getting deeper into the city the more of the purple soldiers and Grimm popped out to attack them, and now they were stuck right in front of a convenience store with what was basically a horde in front of them. Dozens of Grimm and just as many purple soldiers.

They had been fighting for a while, and were it not for the fact that their bodies disappeared upon death the street would have already been full of torn up limbs

Ruby let out a yelp as two energy bullets struck her in the stomach. They were powerful, and were like no weapon Ruby had seen before. It made sense why the weapons disappeared once the soldier died, they didn't want those weapons to fall in their hands.

She launched herself forward, and swung Crescent Rose in an arc. Five purple grunts were sliced in half by the attack, but a sudden heavy-weapons soldier punched her head and made her reel back.

Yang silently slid forward, punched a weak Grimm's head open, and stood in front of Ruby as the gas masked soldier's Gatling gun started rotating.

Many small bullets of energy struck her body but she crossed her arms in an attempt to endure it. It was painful, very very painful. Even her Aura couldn't stand it. It started flickering after dozens of bullets were sprayed on her. Cuts and bruises started appearing on her body. "G-aah….haah….hah…." Her eyes started lighting up a deep red. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

She jumped forward using her bullets as a propeller, the bullets kept hitting her and her eyes got redder and her hair burned hotter. The expressionless soldier kept firing upon her as if it had no sense of self-preservation.

Her fist came down to meet the gas masked soldier's face. It was so powerful that its entire body contorted and twisted from the ripples of the blow. Its large body cracked like an egg, before exploding into a ball of energy that quickly disappeared!

She did a backflip as soon as another, smaller soldier tried to take that chance to shoot her in the head.. They truly felt no fear, or intimidation. Those soldiers were scarily inhuman.

She quickly ran over towards her sister and pulled her up, using her back to shield her from a few other energy bullets.

It was a complete and utter mess. Blake tried to help by running towards the two, but a shadow on the ground approached her as she ran over. Then, from that blot of darkness a slim humanoid figure slithered out in a quick and smooth motion, its face resembled that of the soldiers, but a purple skull mask covered its blank front. With a movement that resembled that of a snake it plunged something into the unknowing Blake's back: An energy-powered knife.

Her eyes widened as she felt the blade cut through her Aura, as if passing through it completely, and stabbed her right under the lung. A few inches upwards asnd it would have been the death of her. Blood soaked her clothes, and she trembled as she attempted to look back at the attacker.

With another smooth movement the purple assassin took out the blade from her back with a fleshy  _sshiiik_ sound and tried to lunge forward again.

Blake quickly ducked and spun around, kicking the would-be killer in the legs and tripping it, before taking her curved sword and stabbing it in the head, cracking the skull mask in the process.

She took deep, raspy breaths and her back was still bleeding heavily. She couldn't fight at her full potential like that, especially not against so many enemies.

Nora jumped through the entrance and slammed the ground with a loud yell, making the concrete street quake and the enemy soldiers and Grimm stumble backwards for just a moment. She turned around and strapped her weapon to her back before suddenly lifting up both Yang AND Ruby!

"W-Woah, hey! Who gave you perm-"

"Sorry Ruby, we gotta run!"

Ren jumped out as well, and lifted Blake off the ground. He looked over at Weiss. "You can carry her, right?"

Weiss ran over to the wounded Blake, and quickly grabbed her arm and folded it around her neck to carry her. "Y-You don't need to..." She coughed, the stab cut her deep, and while it didn't hit any vitals it certainly hurt like hell. It burned too, making her wonder just what the hell were those blades made of.

Weiss looks over at her, rolls her eyes in her usual 'annoyed' way and simply replies: "Shut it."

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. So sorry if this chapter feels a bit...rushed, I didn't have much time to finish this chapter this week so that's why it's a bit more….rough than usual.


	71. Prologue To The End

**45 minutes before the recovery of Jaune Arc:**

Professor Ozpin, Ironwood, Qrow, and the rest of the staff sat around in the meeting room under the bunker, looking at the school ground's camera footage.

James smashed both of his closed fists onto the table. The holographic screen flickered a bit. "Damn it, DAMN IT! I can't believe we feel right onto the enemy's trap. We should have realized it sooner!"

Before Ozpin could speak up Qrow, who pressed his buck against the wall. "Calm down, James, you really aren't helping anyone with that att-"

James stood up and walked towards him, facing him with an angry look. "Shut. Up. Your irritating voice is not needed right now, Qrow!"

Qrow, with his usual half-lidded eyes stood up, facing him eye-to-eye. The other teachers approached them warily, ready to stop them should a fight break out. After a few seconds, Qrow huffed and walked past him. "Fine, be like that. I'm going out there actually helping people." He walked towards the door without bothering to give him a second look and pressed his hand on the scanner near the door.

_Click_

The door opened, and someone suddenly stormed inside!

Ironwood stood up, arm going to grab his pistol. "Hey, hey, this is a restricted a-" He stopped, realizing it was a familiar figure. Jotaro ran towards the table and startled pretty much everyone around, smacking a piece of paper on the table.

"What...is this?" Ozpin put his hand on the paper and pulled it closer. The drawing in it looked like the purple soldiers outside, but with butterfly wings and a huge cannon in its hands.

Jotaro took deep breaths, all eyes on him. Even Qrow stopped his exit to look back. Well, of course, he almost ran into him. "This...is what destroyed the airship." He said, still catching breath. "My...Stand saw it."

Ozpin looked at him and lifted the drawing up, before turning it around to make it visible to the others for a second. He faced Jotaro. "Thank you, this is very precious informations, is that all?" He said, with not even a hint of doubt in him.

"Really? You're just going to accept this at face value?" Qrow asked.

"He has no reason to lie to us." Ozpin quickly replied.

"There's something else...I have reason to believe the entire border of the city is surrounded by these….'butterflies'. I don't know how many, but I imagine they're there so nobody can't get out of the city. Via air, at least." Jotaro wiped the sweat off his brow, he had to leave the other two behind in the bunker to get some rest as he took the chance to give the message.

Ozpin exhaled deeply, and stared down at the drawing, examining every line. "I fear...that...There is no way to escape the city as the situation is right now."

The rest just...hung their heads low. What could they do? Their troops were out defending the academy, an academy filled with civilians that escaped the city. They kept gradually losing forces, both human and robotic, while the enemy's numbers seemed unlimited. If things kept going at that pace, they all would have been overrun, and Vale….would fall into ruin, no Kingdom would be safe.

Qrow looked back at Jotaro. "Are...Ruby, Yang and the others...out there? Just answer that."

Jotaro gave him a quick nod.

"Those kids, I swear..." He walked outside without saying another word. Just shaking his head.

_Click_

The door slid closed.

* * *

**Present Time:**

"AAAAH!" Nora let out a scream as she boosted herself forward. The gigantic Deathstalker behind them, its gigantic pingers snapping forward and its menacing yellow tails smashing against buildings like a wrecking ball.

"How did we even get into this situation?!" Weiss screamed and held onto Blake, and she held onto her like her life depended on it, and it did.

Team RWBY, along with half of Team JNPR were having their 'tactical retreat', tired, some wounded, and all definitely panicked from the gigantic Grimm that just suddenly decided shwo up and attempt to squish them. They had managed to defeat one before, but not in such a desperate situation! They decided that the best course of action was just getting the hell out of there as soon as possible.

"Where the hell is Pyrrha when you need her?!" Ruby shouted.

Ren took heavy breaths as he kept running and running...until he tripped, and fell on the ground with a thud. "A-Ah..."

Nora turned around as soon as she noticed, "Ren!"

By that point it was too late, the right pincer of the Deathstalker lunged forward and grabbed the huntsman, squeezing it thightly as it kept quickly running after the others.

"A-AAH!" His Aura flickered slightly, giving out just enough for him to feel a jolt of pain coarsing through the middle of his torso. His arms were stuck together and couldn't move.

"D-Don't you DA-" Nora lunged forward and was promptly smacked to the side by another pincer, her spinning body hit the side of a building and created a small crater in the impact.

Team RWBY looked back, staring in horror at the scene and stopped. Ruby attempted to grab onto her scythe and get ready for the fight until…

A giant sword seemed to rain down from the sky and smash against the Deathstalker's head, tearing open the armor and making the Grimm shriek in horror and wriggle around in pain, smashing poor Ren against the side of a building over and over in the process. Then, a figure jumped down from on top of a rooftop.

He landed a foot no top of the hilt of the sword kicked it, the sword spun in the air before he grabbed it with a hand, standing on top of the Deathstalker with a smirk. He didn't even need to say anything, Ruby immediately recognized him...In fact, he recognized him even before he appeared thanks to the sword. "UNCLE QROW!" She looked as if she was going to cry tears of joy.

He slid down the face of the Grimm. Jumping high as one of the pincers tried to grab him. He held onto his long sword with both hands and flipped in the air, slashing down onto the right pincer with a plunging attack. The blade cut through it, and black ooze spewed out as the pincer detached from the body. The Deathstalker let out another pained scream.

Ren took out deep breaths, bleeding a bit from the top of his head, the blood oozing down from his black hair. He coughed and kicked open the pincers and crawled out, looking back at his savior.

The Deathstalker raised its entire body is at charged for Qrow, intending in a desperate attempt to squash the Huntsman under its mass. Qrow raised up his sword, standing still. "One...Two...Three…."

The Grimm exposed his underside and Qrow shot upwards, slashing and tearing his sword under the thick carapace of the Grimm. More and more ooze started dripping down as Qrow ran along the blade across the entirety of its underside, cutting it in two parts.

"Easy as a, b, c."

After that, rather lame, one-liner the body of the Grimm split in half: Its two halves fell on opposites end and the street was filled with black ooze that quickly evaporated into smoke.

He turned around to the group who stared at him wide-eyed. There were a myriad of things everyone, especially Ruby, wanted to ask, but the one most apperent was…

Ruby took a step forward. "Uncle Qrow...How did you get here so quickly?"

He smirked and patted the red-haired girl on the head, "Who knows? Maybe it was magic."

Nora supported Ren up...Well, neither was really in an optimal condition, so it was more like they supported eachother. "Thank you..." Ren softly thanked, "If it weren't for you..."

"No time to think about ifs, kids." He turned around, and started walking north. "Let's go, it ain't safe out here, as you may have noticed."

* * *

"I just..want to ask one question." Blake, with a large bandage folded around the wounds on her back started.

"Sure, go ahead." Pyrrha smiled cheerfully.

"How...How did you get here before us?"

Jaune, who was right beside Pyrrha, scratched his head. "Uh...She's right, considering the path we took...it doesn't really make much sense."

Wait, not even Jaune knew? How the hell?

Pyrrha leaned a bit more towards the curious Faunus, "Let's just say that magnetism is really useful sometimes." She said, and didn't follow up.

Blake just tilted her head in disbelief. Pyrrha didn't seem interested in continouing that discussion, but it all made Blake all the more curious.

They, along with the rest of Team RWBY and JNPR were all standing about outside the first-year dorms. All looking incredibly tired. They all looked around the school grounds. Dozens...No, hundreds of people, civilian and not, walked around. Confusion, distress, despair...You could smell it in the air, and the sound of battles coming from the city weren't helping. The pod droppings died down after the first batch, but considering a gigantic horde of Grimm took over the city along with the purple soldiers...Well, it wasn't a very hopeful situation.

Ruby looked up, at that strange, gigantic platform that loomed over the sky and that ominous factory on top of it, looking like it was taken straight out of the netherworld.

She brought her knees close to her chest and looked down. She had to remain positive, but that situation just felt...hopeless. The voice of her teammates suddenly snapped her back to reality.

Yang was looking down at a scroll, which displayed a rather hastily and badly written message coming from Jotaro, which translated from the gibberish a teen from the 80s would write it looked something like: " _Will sleep in bunker._ _Let's meet up tomorrow. Got big plan._ "

She stretched and let out a pained groan. "My...everything hurts. I don't even know if I'll be able to sleep with what's happening outside."

Pyrrha turned to them. "Ah, there was a notice earlier that stated that for each night until this crisis is solved one Beacon student from each Team will have to keep guard around the school."

"Well, I guess we know what your team is choosing." Blake coughed a bit. Ren and Nora were so utterly beat by the time they got at the academy that they practically passed out onto their beds, as if the sounds of battle outside didn't exist, and Jaune….well, the answer to that dilemma was obvious, they didn't even need to spell it out.

Yang patted Ruby on the head, "Whaddya say, leader?" she said with a grin. Ruby looked up and flashed them a weak smile and laugh.

"Well..."

"Fine fine, I will do it." Weiss stood up, "I can sacrifice some beauty sleep if it's for the team. Plus you all do not seem to be in the best of shapes for eventual fights. Get some rest, you dorks."

Ruby smiled brightly, "You've really grown, Weiss."

* * *

**00:50 AM. Beacon Academy Bunker's Emergency Meeting Room.**

A small stack of papers containing drawings, photos, and words were lined up across the table.

They read:

' _Purple' Enemy Research Dossier: The types of enemies so far._

_Purple Grunts: Regular soldiers. Humanoid with a slightly masculine figure. Wield high-energy assault rifles along with energy sabres. Physical strength and durability equal to that of a human adult lacking Aura. Drops in pods of four each._

_Purple Heavies: Rotund appearance, wear gas masks. Wields a Gatling gun like energy rifle that shots small but repeated energy shots. Physical strength and durability significantly high. Drops in pods with one each._

_Purple Assassins: Slim appearance, wears skull mask. Can turn into a shadow (method unknown) but can't attack until it turns visible. Wields energy blades that seem to bypass Aura. Physical strength high, but durability incredibly low. Drop pods unknown. Highly dangerous._

_Purple Officers: Very rare unit. Looks like a Grunt with a red cape and with a significant height boost. It seems to lead cells of other purple soldiers. Wields powered-up rifles. Can use a defensive Aura (Artificial or natural? Unknown). Strength and durability very high. Drops in pods of one each._

_Purple Butterflies: Defence units. Able to fly and hover at incredibly high altitudes, wield massive energy cannons equal to those of battleships. Does not engage ground units in battle. Durability and strength unknown but presumed high. Drop pods assumed non-existent._

Glynda looked over at the files. "I...don't get it, with this strength and the help of the Grimm they could easily assault the Academy...But why do they refrain?"

"They need us alive, well...at least some of us alive." Ozpin stood up as he said so. "All we can do is wait and hope for help to arrive from the other kingdoms."

[To Be Continued]-->


	72. Crash Landing

**5:40 AM**

The grounds of the Academy had been turned into an emergency military base. Soldiers, Huntsmen, and automatons patrolled the perimeter, airships of both Atlasian and Vale design laid inside the sturdy walls of the school. The sounds of battle could be heard way inside the Academy, even inside the dorms.

Nobody could sleep well that night, if they slept at all. It was an absolute nightmare of a situation, the town was practically in flames. In every student, in every civilian, in every soldier...it felt like a lump of negative emotions had taken hold of their hearts, and rightfully so.

Neither the Purples or the Grimms had made any direct attacks, just various skirmishes with various rescue groups that were dispatched to find lost civilians. It was...odd, to say the least, not even the savage and chaotic Grimm made any direct attack at the Academy, and they never attacked the Purple soldiers, it was like they were their assault animals more than anything else.

In short, it was a situation of complete stalemate. But it wouldn't last for long, even if the enemy didn't make any attacks, eventually the school's emergency supplies would run out, and they'd be overtaken by starvation.

The bunkers were filled with people trying to find some safety from the battle on the surface, and as they had no place they could go, Jotaro, Kakyoin, and Polnareff slept there too. They were packed like sardines down there. Polnareff yawned and sat up on the bed, pulling away the covers.

He let out a yawn, slightly covering his mouth and looking around. Kakyoin seemed to have woken up at the exact same time. However, the bed between theirs was completely empty, and the sheeths seemed hastily undone.

Nurses and wounded soldiers walked or wobbled around the hallway outside, creating quite a confusing awakening. Polnareff let out a groan, pushing himself to stand up. "Argh...just, where the hell is Jotaro?"

Right in front of them, a doctor pulled up a wounded soldier and put her onto a wheelchair, and walked her out of the room. They just couldn't help but stare. They got in a much, much bigger situation than they could have ever wanted or even imagined. Kakyoin adjusted his hair a little, looking back at Polnareff. "I...fear he's going to act on his plan, whether we want him to or."

Polnareff just woke up, and he already looked enraged. "Argh, if that's the case...What an idiot, we already told him yesterday that it's way too dangerous!" He punched the mattress, in frustration. They had already discussed about his plan, and for the first time in a long while...they didn't agree with it, they thought he lost his mind in trying to do something that crazy.

"I feel like it's in the Joestar bloodline to be...reckless, at times, and although that saved our hides times and times again, this time it just feels…." He let out a sigh.

"Whatever, let's go wake up RWBY...Ah, Team RWBY, not just….Ruby, you know what I meant, let's go! We need to find him"

* * *

**6:00 AM**

Jotaro stared onwards. There it was, just like the other night, undefended, just left there…It was an incredibly careless thing for the military to do, leaving out an airship like that out in the back of the school. Still, that carelessness just may have ended up saving them in the end.

With the hands resting in the pockets of his uniform he took a few steps forward, towards the airship. It didn't seem like it, but….his heart was beating fast, very fast. His adrenaline was across the charts. He was always a delinquent, and these types of fight almost never allowed space for rules, but...this was on a whole another level.

He was going to steal an airship, an almost futuristic vehicle he couldn't even pilot, but he had to do it. He felt like if he didn't act on his idea…then who will?

He felt footsteps coming from behind him, several, actually. He turned around with a sigh, already knowing who it was.

Six people: His fellow Stand Users and Team RWBY stood in front of him.

"I knew it, you just couldn't let this plan of yours go." Kakyoin said exhasperated.

"They told us." Blake started, "You're planning to hijack an airship and go towards that facility in the sky, in the hopes of shutting it all down, but..."

"But if you do that, you'll die." Ruby started, sadly, voice slightly cracking at the end of her sentence. "You've seen what happened to the other Airship, right? You'll just get intercepted and blown up before you even have a chance to get close to that place."

Jotaro didn't say anything as they stared at him. He turned around, facing the airship. "You don't have to follow me. I will do this alone if I have to. But I will do it. I will end this." They could feel a quiet, but yet unyelding determination coming from his voice.

He turned around, "Actually, don't follow me, if I die...at least I won't bring you all down with me."

He stepped forward.  _Clank. Clank. Clank._ He walked up the open back ramp of the military airship.

"No, you can't!" Yang shouted.

Weiss faced him, a dead serious in her icy eyes. "Stop this foolishness, do you really want to die that badly?!"

"Do you realize what you're doing?! It's a suicide mission!" Blake added

Then, finally, Ruby finished: "We already lost one already, and we don't even know what his fate is! I don't want you to die here! Nobody here does!"

Jotaro stopped, his clenched fist trembling with emotions. Suddenly, all that anger that was bottled up erupted like a fiery volcano. He turned around, shouting like a mad dog: "SHUT THE  _ **FUCK**_ UP! IF YOU'VE GOT A BETTER PLAN, THEN ACT ON IT, I WON'T STOP UNTIL I'M DEAD, OR I'VE BEAT WHOEVER CAUSED ALL OF THIS INTO A BLOODY PULP!"

They all...stared at him, it wasn't that they were scared of him, but they were...conflicted, should they have trusted his decision?

Minutes passed in silence. Jotaro stepped inside the unguarded airship without intending to utter another world.

"Hey." A voice called out o him, he stopped and turned around one last time. Polnareff stepped forward, walking towards him, "I'm the only adult here, no way in hell I'm leaving the piloting of some hi-tech flying vehicle up to some kid, my honour just won't allow it. I'm coming with ya, whether ya like it or not."

Jotaro was equally surprised just as much as the others by those words. Not leaving him time to reply, Kakyoin also started walking towards him. "I guess I owe you some...apologies, we've been travelling so long that it seems that it seems stupid to end our mutual trust now. If this'll be our last journey...well, so be it. I'm also coming with you." He said all of this with a gentle smile.

The two looked back at Team RWBY while now standing around the rather stunned Jotaro. Kakyoin crossed his arms and stated: "We don't want to force you all to come, but….it would be an honor."

Ruby looked up at them...and smiled. "Give us...a second." He indicated to the rest of the Team to follow her, and they stepped back from the airship, grouped up in a circle, and started whispering to themselves.

…

…

…

After five or so minutes, their expression showed what their intent was. They all smiled as they turned around them.

"We...We will follow you." Ruby stated, almost proudly of the decision they took. Then, just like Kakyoin and Polnareff did, each member of Team RWBY stepped forward one by one: First Weiss, then Yang, then Blake, then finally Ruby, and each gave a little speech to pump themselves and the others up.

"It may be foolish after all...but maybe if we just do it, it will all work out in the end."

"All right! Let's all go out in a Ya-...Actually, never mind, let's just go out in a blaze of glory!"

"If we win or lose…does not matter, once we step in, everything will change. I will not stand passive!"

"With all of our strength combined we can end this nightmare! Let's go, Team!"

Jotaro stared at them in utter bewilderment as they stepped right on the airship he was just planning to board alone. "Heh….hehe...hehehe." He couldn't help but find it all so endearing, he cast his gaze downwards and then closed his eyes, chuckling softly.

He turned around, and stepped inside the interior. Every single one of them followed him. "All right, let's do this."

* * *

"Put on your seatbelts, ladies and gents!" Polnareff declared from the cockpit, the helmet he had on just barely fitting with his massive pillar of silver hair. Jotaro sat by the co-pilot seat, tapping his shoulder restlessly.

On the other side of the airship sat Kakyoin and the entirety of Team RWBY, on top of metal benches. They all stared at the grey walls, most of them still clearly nervous about the situation.

"This is a military drop-ship, there are no seatbelts, you dolt!" Weiss shouted.

"Do you even know how to pilot this?" Blake leaned in on the cockpit while still sitting down.

Polnareff held up a manual and showed it to them, it read: " _Airship Piloting for Dummies._ "

"Absolutely not! But I'm learning!" he said with a little bit  _too_ much enthusiasm, e pulled a few levers and pressed a few buttons, grinning from ear to ear. The engine slowly started to power up, and a low hum started to fill the room.

Weiss stared at the ground. "We are all going to die, aren't we?" She asked, only half in jest.

Ruby sighed, "And after that cool Team speech too."

"Damn it, have some faith in me!" he shouted. Then, the interior started to shake and the sound of engines revving up amplified

Then, before they knew it the airship was soaring up in the sky, they felt this feeling several times before...but this time it was twice...no, thrice as intense a before, probably because some Frenchman who never piloted anything in his entire life was now leading them. The airship almost smashed against the high wall of the Academy before it flew over, and into the city it went, headed towards that gigantic platform in the sky..

The refugees below, to put it simply, freaked out at the sight of another Airship in the air, expecting it to see being shot down any second. "W-What's going on?" "Who's in there? I didn't hear of another evacuation!" "T-They're going to die too!"

After a few minutes the hijacked airship was already flying over the city, high up on the now darkened and nearly stormy sky. "Phew, don't worry about it! This'll be a cakewa-"

As soon as he jinxed he saw a light shining in the distance, high above the ground….And without thinking he steered the airship to the right, making the ones in the transport area let out yelps of surprise as they suddenly had their backs smacked against the wall. A beam of deadly light passed by the airship, shooting up into the sky and cleaving a dark cloud above them in half. Polnareff felt like his heart stopped at the sight, it really was like a sci-fi laser cannon, and was absolutely terrifying up close.

The beam dissipated as quickly as it arrived, but then humanoid shadows started approaching them. "There they are, the Butterflies!" Jotaro shouted.

Two of their energy cannons started to light up, pointed straight at them. If one single beam was enough to annihalate an airship, then there was no way they could survive two of them at the same time.

Polnareff, to put it simply, started to panic, and the fact that just below them flew Nevermores and other flying Grimm only made it worse, they were only safe from those because they were sticking close to the city, rather than truly patrolling the skies. With quick thinking Polnareff flew higher...only to notice a third Purple Butterfly pointing its cannon at them from the side.

"G-Gaah!" He suddenly did a 360 degrees rotation with the handle and the airship promptly turned around on itself. Either through some hidden skills or incredible luck the three beams ended up just slightly missing them. But they were so close that they could almost feel it, it was way too close for comfort.

Also, the entire group in the transport smacked their bodies against the roof of the airship, before promptly smacking against the ground…

Weiss, who went out like a limp noodle on top of the bench, found her gaze being attracted to a long, thick thing behind the metal bench.

They were seatbelts, that they just happened to completely ignored.

"G-Guess I am the dumb one." A dazed Weiss uttered words she didn't think she would ever say.

"FUUULL SPEED AHEAD!" Polnareff shouted, turning off the speed limiter and set the engine up into overdrive. As soon as he did, the airship began scarily creaking as yt went at near sonic speed towards the factory. The Butterflies were still on their trail. "Cue chase scene music!"

"IS THIS REALLY THE TIME TO BE JOKING AROUND?!" Yang shouted from the other side of the room.

Also, there was a reason why airships almost never went into overdrive….They were borderline uncontrollable at that speed. Steering the damn thing was as easy as lifting a human-sized rock. The factory was inching ever closer. They were so close!

Almost breaking his arm in the process Polnareff steered to the right to dodge another beam of death, which missed by a wide margin. Their objective was incredibly close! The dark, looming base of their new enemies seemed like it was in an arm's reach. Polnareff grinned, and pushed forward with all his strength. "We're almost the-Oh..."

His enthusiasm ended the moment he saw something pop out of the platform near the factory….Several anti-air cannons. Pointed straight at them. "Oh COME ON!"

"W-What?!" Ruby shouted, confused and unable to see just what the hell was happening in front of the cockpit. He had no choice, he was planning to land the thing and rush inside, but there was no time for that!

"Brace for impact! I'm only gonna say this once!"

Jotaro was the only one not freaking out at that moment, probably because he was trying to keep himself from vomiting, now that would just ruin his image!

The cannons began shooting, and the energy bullets scratched the hull repeatedly. "Hold onto your asses!"

As the airship got closer it got more and more direct hits from the cannon, but they were so close to it! With a determined scream, and a couple of terrified ones from the back, the airship collided against the factory, going downwards like a kamikaze soldier in WW2. It was this or certain death!

_NYUUUUUUM_

_**BOOOOOOOOOOM** _

[To Be Continued]-->


	73. Last Dungeon

Blurs, noise, like an intense ringing. Ruby felt something heavy pressed against her back, her Aura doing little to prevent it from hurting her. Her eyes slowly fluttered open, her eyes seeing double before slowly readjusting. Her ears ringing like a grenade exploded near her. She was unconscionably gripping tight on her weapon and slowly stood up, pushing the rubble off of her. "This...is the inside of the facility?" She slowly muttered, not even sure if she was even alive at that point.

Around her feet gather small and big chunks of black debris alike, and she was surrounded in a huge dark hallway that didn't seem to be made to be traversed by humans, she couldn't see very far at all.

She took a peek behind her. There it was: A huge chunk of airship was lodged against the shattered wall, and what blocked her way out now blocked her way in. But she noticed something peculiar, it was just ONE piece of the airship, and as she quickly noted in that deep, dark hallway...she was completely and utterly alone.

Her mind began to wander: Where were her friends gone? Did they somehow land in some other part of the facility, or maybe the landing….No, she couldn't think about that, she had to keep some optimism within her! She slapped her cheeks and held onto Crescent Rose with both hands, here we go!

…

…

…

Wait, go where? She started walking forward, but the more she stepped deeper into the hallway the darker it seemed to get. She instinctively wanted to call out to her friends, but...considering where she was, it probably wasn't the best of ideas. She walked for a couple of minutes, and while she could be considered brave, foolhardy even, the situation she was in was simply scary. It felt as if anything could jump out at her from the darkness at any moment.

Her footsteps, the only sound she could hear, rang hollow against the metal pavement. Then, she noticed that some light was shining at the end of the hallway. She slowly stepped forward, and…

What she saw was something straight out of a sci-fi film. Conveyor belts layered on top of conveyor belts, strange machines that didn't seem plugged or powered by anything. Synthetic body parts ran along the conveyor belts, dropped down, picked up, put together, disassembled, and then put together again, the room was huge, and utterly nonsensical.

"What is this…?" She slowly stepped forward to take a better look, and then.

_**BWIM** _

The sound of a loud, quick alarm rang once inside the room, and as the conveyor belts kept doing their works holes in the ground started forming, and a big figure started to emerge. The body resembled the Purple Grunts, but much, much taller, and with a red cape slung over its shoulders. In its hands it held onto a big rifle that was pointed straight at her.

She frowned, holding her weapon and getting ready to strike at any moment. "So it IS in here where you things are made." She stated, knowing that the Purple Officer wouldn't reply to her.

She expected a much bigger resistance, considering they were in such a sensitive place for the enemy, but then she realized something...If they were dispatching only a single enemy for her, it meant that the others were keeping them busy for her! The edge of the scythe clicked and pointed forward, turning into a War Scythe. "Bring it."

As the noise of the factory seemed to increase in volume, the Officer just...stared at her, not intending to attack. Slowly, she lowered her weapon, thinking of any possible reason why the newly spawned Officer would just stand there and stare….as much as something without eyes could stare.

She slowly approached the Purple Officer, carefully, taking it slow… "Is it...not aggressive?" She stepped right in front of it, it stood still like a statue.

Then, suddenly, the featureless face jerked to look downwards and the body sprung to life, the rifle it was holding started to quickly turn and transform into a metal handle, and then a two-handed hammer with nasty purple spikes on the ends! Then, the Officer quickly slammed down the hammer onto Ruby!

She quickly dodged sideways and the hammer impacted onto the metal ground, creating a low rumbling sound and splinters of the metal pavement went flying all over the place! A jagged metal splinter shot towards her, passed through her aura and sliced the arm, sticking onto the wound! She let out a shout and closed her eyes for a second. She quickly grabbed the foreign object with her off hand and painfully pulled it away from the wound, causing a distressing amount of blood to come gushing out of the wound.

The Officer transformed its weapon back into a rifle and shot at Ruby, slowly stepping forward like it was in some sort of Terminator film. Holding back tears from the pain she spun her scythe around, blocking the energy bullets shot at her. Then, not giving her even one second to rest the faceless commander transformed the rifle back into a hammer and leaped forward with the clear intent of bashing it on her forehead!

In an explosion of red petals Ruby used her Semblance to jump backwards and dodged the attack. She jumped onto one of the conveyor belts, and slowly got dragged along a rectangular path that then led to another room. And she was still bleeding from the wound in her arm.

She pointed downwards and looked through the scope, shooting the Officer square in the head with powerful sniper shots.  _Clank. Clank. Clank._  Each bullet, however, only managed to dent the featureless head.

"What are you made of?!" She shouted out in frustration. She couldn't believe she was having this much trouble with just one of the big baddie's minion. If she had her team it would have been a cakewalk! Unfortunately, she didn't.

The Officer jumped upwards and landed on top of the conveyor belt, squashing into purple paste some of the synthetic limbs in the process. Its movements were fluid, precise, deadly, more like that of a damn ninja than that of a military officer, It was clearly far more dangerous than any of the Purple Soldiers they had encountered thus far.

It swung the hammer downwards and missed, smashing it on top of the conveyor belt, damaging it. However, while Ruby's wound wasn't fatal, it was certainly weakening her, she couldn't keep dodging forever, if this were to continue she would eventually become a smear on that thing's hammer!

The two got slowly dragged along the conveyor belt, and suddenly a mechanical arm swooped down in an automatic attempts to grab a synthetic leg from under Ruby. Instead, it got hold of her thigh instead, and surprised and left dangling upside down she saw the hammer soar straight towards her face. She let out a surprised shout and shielded her face with her arms.

But then, the mechanical hand worked on Ruby's favour. It turned around thoughtless, giving her a bit of nausea in the process, and dropped her off onto another conveyor belts layered at least one whole floor above the one she had before. Her head smacked against the metal ground that slowly dragged her around against her will. The Purple Officer looked up at her, staring as it slowly was pulled along the conveyor...Then, with quick moving it ran forward and jumped, gripping the mechanical arm and riding it like a surfer riding a wave, it leaped forward and landed right in front of Ruby.

She coughed a bit standing a bit wobbly to her feet. Channelling her inner strength to not puke and pass out she stared at the Purple Officer with sharp eyes, waiting. The foe in front of her was quick, strong, and much smarter than the borderline suicidal Grunts they had encountered before. These Officers were no joke.

_Slam. Slam. Slam. Slam_

A slow, rhythmic banging slowly approached from behind her. She didn't even need to check to know what it was: A press slamming on the ground, crushing whatever was under it, before being pulled back up and slamming down again.

The Officer jumped forward, holding the hammer with both hands and dropping down in front of her. The next moment, Ruby furrowed her brows, and with the arm still bleeding she slightly moved forward, and her body started spinning, she held the scythe first with both hands, then with one hand. She started spinning around, her red clothes and weapon making her seem like a red tornado as she quickly picked up speed. She kept spinning around and slashing and slashing and slashing at the Officer, the blade of the scythe cutting into the synthetic flesh before being pulled out of the newly created wound and slashing at another random place.

The Officer, now full of cuts on top of the bruises on the head, used all its stamina to first block the mad scythe swinging with the hilt of the hammer, placing it under the edge and pulling up, it was the closest thing to a parry the Officer could do. Then, it slammed the hammer square on Ruby's nose. She was propelled back, and she let out a straight up scream of pain and fear. She fell on her back, her nose bleeding.

Now, she was under the press, and even if that didn't crush her she was slowly being dragged down to the gaping abyss behind the press that went who-knows where. She looked up at the press that threatened to smash her flat like a pancake, and at that moment Ruby just couldn't hold it in any longer, she wasn't the type of person to say this but it was needed in that situation: "Fuck."

She closed her eyes tightly, the muscles in her body tensed up as they felt the immediate and deadly danger. The press descended quickly, and the Officer simply observed the situation. Gritting her teeth, she awaited the inevitable…

Or so she thought. She felt something grab her hoodie from behind her and drag her away! An armored silver hand that extended from the hole gripped her hoodie and dragged her away from the press, and she fell, well, more like dragged off inside what was probably the trash disposal hole of the factory.. "Aaaaaaah!"

* * *

Crackles of energy permeated the mouldy, closed-off air of the dark hallway. Then, those crackles quickly slowed down into nothingness. Dozens upon dozens of Purple Grunts laid on the ground, slowly dissipating into energy.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kakyoin helped Jotaro up, he looked bruised up from the attacks, but then again, so did he. He didn't reply, he simply, and rudely, brushed him aside and stood up.

Blake sat on the ground, letting out a pained groan, she rubbed her temples. "I don't know how much more non-stop fighting I can withstand, I feel like I'm about to pass out, my Dust is running low too. How many have we destroyed so far?"

"About fifty. It seems they're focused on us the most." Kakyoin replied. Then, a Purple Grunt jumped out of a corner and pointed a gun at them. But Kakyoin was already prepared in the case for another arriving. It was like those beings had no spatial awareness other than the target in front of them, so they could run consistently in the same traps.

A length of green 'rope' tripped the Grunt, just enough for it to falter and stop. Then, the humanoid body of Hierophant Green rushed towards it and wrestled the rifle out of its hands. Then, quick as a bullet itself, Hierophant pointed the rifle at its owner and pulled the trigger. The energy bullet pierced the head, leaving only a hole where it shot. As the Grunt dissipated so did the gun.

Kakyoin stepped forward, carefully, hugging the walls. "As much as I would love to stay here and fight a never ending wave of enemy soldiers I would like to do some progress. We need to find Polnareff, Weiss, Yang, and Ruby."

"Since when you started taking the lead?" Blake couldn't help but ask, slowly crouching down and following him.

Kakyoin had his eyes narrowed, an incredibly serious look laid on his face. He didn't look at all in the mood to reply to her with a witty remark.

"Are you...worried for the others?" Blake asked, and by the soundo f her voice she wasn't totally keeping her cool either.

"Of course I am. Come on, no more idle chit-chat."

They started exploring the factory's interior, a bit bruised, but still able to fight. But, unaware to them, something stirred in the dark, dark depths of the floating factory, something akin to a beating white heart, made up of dozens upon dozens of writhing translucent humanoid beings, pumping pure energy that coursed through the entirety of the factory.

A bald man, surrounded by a dozen or so of Purple Soldiers, walked up to the beating heart, grinning wickedly from ear to ear. "That reminds me...I forgot to give you a name. How about...Two Steps from Hell?" Steele approached slightly slightly, his grin showing off unnaturally sharp fangs. "Seems rather fitting for a Stand made up of dozens of human souls."

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1.Sorry, I kind of had to rush this chapter out due to technical issues. Hopefully next week this won't be as short.


	74. Gigantomachia

Ruby's fall came to a sudden but surprisingly non painful stop. The strong scent of garbage filled her nostrils, and it felt like she was going to suffocate from the smell alone. The hand that held her hoodie disappeared. She took a look around.

Her face, and body for that matter, was almost drowning in a sea of rubbish. Bent and incomplete synthetic body parts surrounded her, along with discarded and broken weapons, and Ruby was suddenly glad that those beings didn't have to go to the bathroom. She coughed and her eyes widened, once she came to a realization. "This...is where the ones defeated in battle go."

"Jeez-louse, you could at least bother say thank you, Ruby." A familiar voice called out to her. She swiftly turned around and saw Polnareff's roughed up face. He had a few wounds on his body, but nothing too major, two other figures shifted around him, one with long, surprisingly immaculate hair and one in with her hair up in a ponytail.

"This place is a dumpster..." Weiss remarked, kicking away a synthetic leg. That wasn't even an insult, at that point it was just stating a fact. She slowly approached the two, and flashed Ruby an unusually wide smile.

Yang too walked up to her, smiling, "Heya, sis!"

Ruby was so happy at that moment she could cry. As soon as her three friends lined up he ran up to them and group-hugged them as much as she could! "You saved me!"She shouted with a big grin on her face, which was practically buried in Polnareff's chest.

"You know, you should consider wearing thicker clothes. You have an unnatural amount of chest for a boy." Weiss snidely remarked, but still hugged Ruby and rubbed the back of her head.

Yang chimed in with a big grin on her face:"That's not a very classy thing to say, Weiss. Slightly family unfriendly too!"

"It's called muscles, and I'll take that as a compliment!"

Ruby didn't even care about whatever they were saying, she was just happy she and they were alive at that moment! But...there was one thing that bothered her.

"How...did you save me, exactly?" She looked up slightly, looking over at Polnareff.

"Oh no, don't get him started, he'll end up bragging about his smart idea the whole time!"

Ruby stood back a little, tilting her head in confusion. Then, Polnareff proudly puffed out his chest and took a deep breath, and stated. "I used my Silver Chariot to go up...there!" He pointed upwards, towards the chimney-like structure on top of them, a funnel that seemed to drop trash, and Rubies.

"I...Could have guessed that, but how did you do it? Your Stand doesn't really have that much range, does it?"

"Well, let me explain: first of all I, and these two kind ladies, gathered a pile of trash to act as a nice starting point and a fall softener for y-"

"Pile of trash? You mean your entire fashion style?" Weiss's snarky meter seemed to be put on max that day, though it was more than appreciated in that rather tense situation.

"Come ooon! I thought we dropped that gag ages ago!"

"Oh trust me, I never stopped judging your style. I was just waiting for the right moment."

"Aaanyway..." Polnareff turned towards her, waving at the pile of squishy limbs and discarded weapons, "Then, Weiss used a glyph on Chariot to give it a quick boost that went even beyond the Stand's limit….And then it would whip back like a rubber band and fall down anyway, which is why you had to fall so roughly. Sorry about that."

"I'm just glad I'm alive, honestly." She scratched the back of her head, grinning. "Where are the others?"

"About that..." Yang crossed her arms, and with perfect timing the ceiling suddenly shook for a little bit, before abruptly stopping.

"What was that?" Ruby asked, flinching back a little from surprise. "We're above the ground, right? No way that's an earthquake."

"Sounds of battles." Weiss simply stated, "The other group is attracting much more enemies that we are. I have a suspicious feeling that they're trying their best to eliminate Jotaro in particular."

"Jotaro?" Ruby approached her in that vast desolate land of trash. "Why him? How would they know about him anyway?"

"If Jotaro was right about what this place is, and who is residing here...Then we already know the reason." Yang noted, scouting around and checking the ground for...something.

The look on Ruby's face alone was enough to show that she didn't remember what she was talking about, she was so wrecked with fear and worry that she forgot a lot of things in the meantime. Polnareff saw her clueless expression, and tried to explain without it being too obvious. "You mean...this place being a gigantic Stand, and that Dio is controlling everything from here?"

"Mhmm. Although it's just a theory of ours." Yang nodded, still searching around and muttering "Where is it? Where is it?" She threw away some random garbage, shoveling it away, "It was here before...ah, there it is!"

The other three approached her, Ruby in particular looking at her with curiosity. "What's 'it'?"

Yang turned to the three and grinned, dusting off her hands after a job well done. "While Polnie-boy and Weiss were making the pile in order to rescue you, I found this!"

She waved her arms towards the ground, indicating...a metal hatch.

"I believe we've got a one-way ticket to the core of this place!"

"Why is this out here then? Nobody that we've seen so far inside here has been human, except for the three of ours….So why a floor hatch? Wouldn't it be better to wall off the core?" Weiss pointed out, hands one her hips.

"L-Listen, I dunno!" Yang admitted, "Just...give me a second here."

She lifted the hatch with ease, showing that under there laid a ladder that seemed to belong more in a sewer rather than in a factory, and it went down and down.

"G-Gah!" Polnareff suddenly went to his knees, his heart beating like crazy and his eyes dilated. "F-Fuck….the hell's this feeling? It feels...overwhelming."

Ruby looked over at her roughed up arms and then at the rest of her body, "Are...you sure you're okay?" She walked towards him and attempted to lift the rather beefy Frenchman up, fortunately muscle mass meant very little in Remnant and was able to help him up regardless

They stared at him for a few second until he regained his composure. "I...never felt such a massive amount of energy accumulated In one place. It shames me to say this, but….I don't know if I want to go any further."

"We've come this far, we can't fall back now!" Ruby exclaimed. Polnareff let out a bit of an awkward laugh and slightly approached the opened hatch, though he clearly didn't want to, it was like the air around it was just full of energy and malice the likes he never even could have imagined. It was something way, way beyond anything they had ever faced.

Yang stared at him and smiled, pointing at Polnareff and then at the open hatch. "Gentlemen first."

He let out an awkward laugh, "I guess...you only live once, right? Ha..hahaha..."

He let out a disgruntled sigh and placed a foot on top of the wall-attached metal ladder, slowly descending into unknown depths.

* * *

"Ho...ly crap." That was all Kakyoin could matter as he saw the scene unfold before him. They had stumbled upon a very large round-shaped, seemingly empty room with a large hole in the middle of the room. At first they thought they could just pass through with no problem by just standing to the sides, but that quickly proved to be….wrong.

A huge, simply gigantic figure emerged from the hole in the ground. Its body humanoid, and its huge head resembled the visage of a metallic eagle. Two long, arms dangled from the being's shoulders, on the right hand a huge cannon was attached to the top of the wrist, while on the left hand a huge, sharp blade extended from below the wrist. And just like the other inhabitants of this factory it had a purple color and glint. It was so huge that they couldn't even see the nest.

" _Engaging Node Protection Directives._ " For the first time ever, they actually heard one of these beings speak. They spoke in a high-pitched, robotic voice, but at that point they knew already what they were: Puppets, puppets brought to life by the power of a Stand. How did they know, well, because of a little thing that kept blaring on, specifically directed at them:

"I would love to see how you will fare against my biggest soldier, if you do, you'll get a shot at going directly to me." A hovering monitor floated over to them, directing the message while the bald man in military uniform kept laughing. Jotaro promptly made Star Platinum punch the damned monitor to pieces and cut his laugh short. That old-looking pale man had made his presence known inside the factory shortly after they began exploring the place. They had absolutely no idea who the hell that person was, but as he kept on contacting them through those floating monitors it started getting very, very annoying.

The huge being started thrashing around, smashing the arm-blade across the ground, sending out sparks! Jotaro, who was in the way, managed to roll out of the way. Then, he heard the voice of Blake calling out to him. She was running around the room like a madwoman, her weapon out. Not only to avoid any eventual hit from the huge Purple Soldier, but also because nearing the entrance whence they came...the sound of footstep was getting louder and louder, at that point it felt like an entire platoon of soldiers were running after them.

Oh wait, that was exactly what was happening.

"I'm sorry to say this, Jotaro, but your Stand's pretty much useless if you can't get close without falling off that pit!" Blake shouted. The huge Purple Soldier turned around to face her and pointed the huge wrist-cannon at her. A huge ball of energy, as big as she was, was shot towards her at high speed. She quickly dodged out of the way with a back-flip, and the ball of energy slammed against the wall, with enough force to dent the thick wall made out of pure metal before dissipating. She took a deep sigh of relief, that would have hurt. A lot.

Jotaro already know what he was supposed to do. He ran towards whence they came and quickly summoned his Stand, ready to face the advancing horde of enemies on his own. At the entrance fifty grunts pointed their guns at Jotaro. His body was then dotted with the laser dots of the rifles that pointed at parts of his body.

He sighed. "Good grief, what a mess..."

The Purple Soldiers didn't play around, they pulled the trigger as fast as they could, all in perfect unison. Star Platinum lunged forward as soon as the bullets went off, and used its fists to block most of the bullets! Although it resulted in some rather heavy cuts under Jotaro's sleeves that happened every time a bullet scratched past the arm.

With a wide right punch he managed to knockout five Grunts at once, then with a few sweeping kicks another six, then after a flurry of ORAs another ten or so, but Jotaro knew that he was going to get swarmed more and more, he could hear other footsteps already.

While Jotaro took care of the crowd, Kakyoin and Blake strafed around the huge behemoth while pelting it with as many projectiles as they could, but nothing seemed to be damaging it significantly. Kakyoin's Hierophant Green kept floating around the humanoid creature like an agile flying snake, shooting Emerald Splashes on top of Emerald Splashes at the creature.

"It's not working!" Blake shouted, forced to reload her weapon.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that!" Kakyoin exclaimed. Hierophant green then flew downwards, under the creature's armpit, and then soared upwards again, circling around it again and again while the sluggish Purple Soldier attempted to slash the Stand to pieces, but it was simply too agile for that. The Stand kept circling it for a good couple of minutes, the body of the humanoid covered by Hierophant's lengthy green tail. They converged together like a string and suddenly it found itself completely unable to move, the arms attached to its body thanks to the supernaturally resistant rope.

Without waiting a single second the Stand flew upwards towards the creature's 'face', and its hands converged together. A liquid energy emitting from its hands started to form together...

"Emerald...Cannon..."

More and more energy started to converge together, more than any Emerald Splash or Emerald cannon he ever did before. While the giant tried and failed to struggle out of Hierophant's snare the Stand kept charging up the attack up the attack. Then, through the Stand itself, Kakyoin shouted:

"GIGANTOMACHIA!" Kakyoin roared, putting all of his willpower and determination into a single attack.

The crystal projectile that formed was as long as Kakyoin's entire body and absurdly thick. The sharp, menacing edge made it look more like a spear or harpoon than a true projectile, hovering slightly between the Stand's hands. Soon after the intensified Emerald Cannon projectile flew forwards and…

It slashed right through the giant's skull, lodging itself in the middle of its head. The body stopped struggling, and it went limp…

"Is it...dead?" Blake looked first at Hierophant, then at Kakyoin on the other side of the hole, and quickly ran towards him.

Suddenly, the body exploded into a blinding light, so bright they had to cover their eyes, and just like that it was gone. The dozens of soldiers that Jotaro was struggling against suddenly stopped, and went limp.

_Whiirrr.. Flap Flap Flap. Whiiiirrr._

Jotaro turned around, "What the hell...is that sound?" Jotaro, along with the others catiously approached the border of the hole, and something started elevating itself from inside the hole:

A monitor. Like the ones they saw before, carried by small metallic bat wings. It flew over to them, and the visage of Steele appeared on the screen. "You are all little pests, you know that?" He stated, looking annoyed as all hell. "Very well, it seems our plans will not go into fruition unless you're all dealt with, and it seems my soldiers just aren't enough. Come to me. I, Erde Steele will destroy all of you at once. Let's end this charade."

His face was twisted into a maniacal smirk, before erupting into a roaring laugh.

[To Be Continued]-->


	75. Two Steps From Hell

After Steele's laugh echoed inside the circular chamber for about thirty seconds the screen of the monitor flickered and shut down. Then, floating right on top of the gigantic hole it imploded into a ball of fire, leaving no trace.

Then from the walls of the hole several platforms started popping out, lining up one under the other into a spiral staircase that went down and down.

"Fuckin' hell..." Jotaro muttered, hands on his pockets as he looked around. It was times like these he hoped he could smoke a cigarette.

Blake was looking down, eyes closed in thought. "Erde Steele...That Erde Steele?"

Kakyoin was basically on his knees, that precious attack took everything out of him to unleash, so it left him more than just a little exhausted. "Y...You know him?"

"Well, I know OF him." Blake corrected, before looking up to stare at the hole, the ears under the bow twitching ever-so-slightly. "I heard he's a famed military officer of Atlas with great amounts of medals on his uniform, and that he supposedly disappeared some time ago. But if that's the case...argh, how does HE work into this mess?"

Jotaro, who looked slightly more pissed off than usual, grunted and walked towards the stairs, "Who cares about that. He wants to fight? We'll give him a fight."

"H...Hold on." Kakyoin stood up, legs a bit shaking, and grabbed Jotaro by the shoulder. "You're not thinking clearly right now, I know how you feel right now, you're seething with anger and want to stop all of this. But you have to calm down, if you don't you'll just dive headfirst into a trap."

Jotaro simply stared at him, and then shook him away as he kept walking forward, stepping a foot on the platform and slowly descending the long spiral staircase.

Blake sighed, "More stubborn than a mule." She commented, before helping Kakyoin stay up and supporting him. "By the way..."

Kakyoin turned to her, "Yes?"

"What was that...thing you did before? Giganto...something?"

"Oh." Did he really make up that name of the spot? He was so caught up in the moment that he completely forgot. "It's just...something that came from within, I can't really explain it. I didn't even know Hierophant Green could do something like that."

Blake's lips curled into a smile. "Well, it was cool, though...I never imagined you would be the one to launch an attack like that.

"Haha, wow. Thanks." Admittedly, his Stand wasn't really powerful at all, but the trip in this world seemed to toughen it up a little.

"Are you coming or not?" Jotaro's annoyed tone echoed from below.

"Yeah yeah." The two said in accidental unison.

* * *

"Oh what a thrill..." Polnareff kept descending the stairs, that strange feeling in the air making his hair stand on end. Hands on the steps, he attempted to not look down as he kept going down and down. The others, just above him on the ladder however didn't look so different. Was he going nuts? Was that feeling something he could feel?

And no, he couldn't look up their skirts. Partially because he would have preferred not to at that moment in time and that even if he wanted to their 'combat skirts' seemed to be magically padded to never show any underwear. "This world has some truly magical things..."

"Huh?" Ruby looked down a little, confused.

"Nothing, nothing."

After a couple of minutes of arm-hurting climbing down the ladder the four finally reached the bottom. And boy what a sight it was:

A hallway full of absolutely nothing, unnaturally lit up despite the lack of any lightbulbs or even any primitive torches. Then they saw it: A large door at the end of the hallway, the door would look completely normal in any other situation: Double-sized, completely white, without any sort of distinguishable features. But it was exactly because of how normal it looked that was...unnerving.

"Yeah, this is not ominous by any means." Yang's sarcastic voice echoed across the walls of the empty white hallway.

Ruby slowly approached the door, her hand hovering the handle. She slowly looked back at the others, who gave her a brief nod. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for what was about to come. "I guess this is the point of no return for us four."

"Us  _four_?" A voice called out from behind them. "Nice of you to forget about me, Ruby." Blake's silhouette appeared from the opposite end of the hallway! They were so focused on the door they didn't even notice that three other people were walking towards them.

Ruby started practically jumping up and down in joy at the sight of JoJo, Kakyoin and Blake! She was still so worried.

"Where were you, ya rotten bastard? " Polnareff nonchalantly strut up to the two other stand users and hugged them, though Jotaro looked more annoyed than happy. It was since the crash that he was awfully quiet, like he was constantly thinking about something...

"Just destroying giants and saving the world, you know, the usual." Kakyoin said with a healthy dose of truth and sarcasm.

Meanwhile, Blake promptly ran up to the other members of her Team and had a big ol' group hug, though after a moment Yang squeezed out of the hug.

Polnareff laughed, hugging them tighter, "I didn't think even for a second that any of you would die. After all we've been through it'd be pretty lame to die right at the climax."

Yang leaned closer, "Heey, that's no good, why don't any of us get a hug either? Let me join in on the hug!" She said in a jokingly whiny tone.

"This is a brotherly thing, no ladies allowed, shoo, shoo."

Kakyoin chuckled slightly, "Oh don't be so sexist, let her join in on the hug if she wants."

"Fiiiine."

After a little 'hooray'! Yang spread out her arms and hugged all three of them at once, laying a cheek on Jotaro's shoulder while wearing a big stupid grin on her face.

After the hug finished though, and Kakyoin and Polnareff joined the rest of Team RWBY to catch up on the situation, Yang blocked Jotaro's path, looking up at her with a serious look. "What's up with you?"

Yeah, Jotaro was a hard-ass, no doubt about that, but there was something different about him at that moment, something in his eyes that didn't sit well with Yang. He said nothing, he simply tipped his hat, cast his glance downwards and walked over to the door with the others. Yang followed him with her gaze, rubbing her upper arms…

She didn't want to think about it, but he truly looked like a man marching to his death.

After discussing the possibilities of traps and Erde Steele's presence they faced their final door...When they thought of it, they couldn't exactly tell why they thought this would have been their final challenge….it was just something unspoken, a feeling they all felt.

Finally, Ruby opened the door…

And wished she had left it closed.

The first thing they saw was the giant...thing at the center of the room, hooked around the walls by long chains. It was the color of bile, and had the form of a human heart. Bald, skinless figures formed the entirety of the…. _thing_. If it weren't moving and writhing around, they would have assumed it was a grotesque statue of sorts.

There were no purple soldiers, no turrets, nothing, they had expected to face down an army but all that there was was a single man:

Erde Steele had his back turned on the group, his arms behind his back as he looked up at the giant, vomit-inducing Stand. "Ah, isn't it wonderful how much power cooperation creates?" He stated. He was standing on top of a slightly floating platform, that laid right in front of the Stand. "All of this..." He moved his hands exaggeratedly, "Created through the energy of just a few dozen souls..."

"What the hell..." Kakyoin muttered. Even the Silver Records didn't let off such a disgusting aura.

"So…." Ruby looked upward, it was almost scary how angry she looked, "Those disappearances, they weren't only because of the Silver Records kidnappings, it was your doing too."

Erde turned around, staring at the others with a sense of smug superiority. "A bunch of poor tortured souls, barred from the afterlife itself...How cruel, how twisted." He grinned, showing he proved no guilt at all for what he did.

Jotaro started walking towards him and stopped midway through. His eyes twitched from rage as he stared at Erde. "Where..." he started, looking down at the ground before staring him down. "Where is Dio?"

"Hehehe, right to the point, are you?" Erde mused. The platform moved upwards, elevating him further. The arms of the souls behind him tried to grab him, to no avail. "It makes sense that you'd be able to sense his presence, you do have the blood of the Joestars within you. Is that why you're so angered?"

He chuckled, irritating pretty much everyone else in the room. "But you're right. If it weren't for Lord Dio, all of this would never have happened."

"All the deaths, the sacrifices, the destruction...just what were they for?!" Weiss shouted in irritation and confusion.

"You don't need to know, since you'll be de-"

A flash of light impacted against Erde, and it resulted into a blinding explosion. Empty bullet shells fell on the ground.

"Yang!" Ruby shouted.

"What? He just kept talking."

At first they thought that had to be that, right? There was no way a Stand User without Aura could survive a shot like that.

But they were wrong, oh so wrong. As the smoke cleared out, the muscular figure of Erde Steele appeared, completely immaculate, even if his clothes were burned a little. "Fine then..." He muttered in irritation. He placed a hand on top of his military uniform. "Come on then! I'll destroy all of you in one fight!"

He ripped his jacket off, revealing an overtly muscular torso, muscles on top of muscles, abs on top of abs. His veins bulged out unnaturally. His body was also incredibly pale and...cold.

"No effing way..." Yang covered her mouth, she could see the wounds her explosive shells caused on his body, but they quickly regenerated without a scar forming. The Stand users told them of this kind of creature, but they didn't think it would apply to anyone else other than to Dio Brando….

"He's a vampire too!" Polnareff shouted, and without thinking he summoned Silver Chariot and immediately rushed forward to attack, he didn't even get halfway across the room that…

The others tried to follow him, but Ruby was the first one to stop and to realize there was a strange noise coming from Polnareff's direction, it sounded like….beeping.

"Polnareff, wait!" Ruby called out, but Polnareff had already launched himself in a reckless attack.

"Huh?" Polnareff turned around at the last second, and then…

_Riiiiiiing_

_**BOOM** _

The resulting shockwave let out by the explosive trap launched Polnareff backwards in the air and made his smack his face against the ground, he started losing blood from the impact, a possible concussion, and passed out near instantly.

They all saw it, and to their horror they couldn't have stopped it.

"NO!" Ruby shouted, covering her mouth at the thought of him just dying, she couldn't even feel relieved when she saw that he was still breathing, the poor girl felt like she was going to get a heart attack at any second.

"What. Did. You. Do?" Blake emphasized her words, pointing her weapons at the shirtless man, who didn't bother moving from his floating platform.

"Do you take me for an idiot? Mentally challenged, perhaps? Why would I fight you all in a one-against-seven fight head-on? I don't need to move from here to kill you, I'll let my traps do it all for me."

"That smug fucking attitude….I can't stand it." Jotaro clenched his fists.

He spread out his arms, like inviting them to hit him. "Come and get me, then."

He snapped his fingers, and for just a second….they saw them. Landmines, Claymore mines, wires on the walls and ones that spanned from the ground to the ceilings, they were everywhere, it was like an impassable spiderweb of explosive traps. They could sense death coming from every direction they could take. He snapped his fingers again, and like a mirage it was gone.

"I made them myself." The vampire Erde stated. The space that spanned the entrance from the entrance to the Stand was the size of half a soccer field. "Come on, come forward...I would love to see you all fall down one by one without needing from me to lift a finger."

Ruby attempted to run forward to go grab the unconscious Polnareff, but Erde's voice echoed from the other side of the room. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, there's a landmine right in front of him, I'll say it's a miracle he didn't initiate a chain reaction and explode into kingdom come."

Ruby stopped, staring at Polnareff's bleeding body, shards of the explosive 'fortunately' keeping the wound somewhat blocked, thus preventing him from bleeding out to death...momentarily, at least. What was she, or anyone else supposed to do? Was it the truth, was it a bluff?

In anger and desperation she turned around and pointed her scythe-gun at Steele, her quaking finger hovered over the trigger of the gun. She was horribly stressed out, her heartbeat spiking up, a horrible thing for a sniper of any caliber.

Kakyoin gritted his teeth in a show of rage, "You will pay for this!" He proclaimed. Hierophant slammed its hands together, charging up an attack.

Erde laughed, and all he did was place his hand forward. The reaching hands of the green solidified souls pointed at him, and the tips of the fingers let out a puple energy, like strands of hair woven together and rippling with energy, they formed and fused together in front of Erde Steele, forming something similar to a shield of purple energy.

Ruby shot three high-caliber bullets at Erde one after the other. The sniper bullets traveled across the room without losing much speed, but as soon as they got close the transparent shield blocked them. "Do you honestly thought you could just take potshots at me from the other side of the room? Don't be absurd." He stated, an air of smug superiority basically surrounding the bald vampire.

Ruby dropped to her knees, and the other members of her Team looked at her with a terrified expression. They never saw their leader so desperate and anxious. She might have been a Huntress in training, she might have been brave, she might have been one of the most skilled fighters the team could have...but she was still only a fifteen years old girl. All the destruction, all the death that this event caused, and now THIS...She was too kind to not be affected by those events. She tried holding back tears, but a few dropped anyway.

"This...This is unfair!"

Erde stood up on the floating platforms, extending a hand and clenching it, the overtly huge muscles on his arms bulging out. "This place...is MY creation! I can choose what you see and what you don't see. You should just turn back while you can!"

He laughed, showing off a twisted smile.

"I hope you got a plan!" An agitated Yang shouted, looking over at Jotaro.

He stood still, his hands clenched into fists so tight it felt like his nails were going to dig into his palm and draw blood. His teeth clenched, and he let out low growls with every mouthy breath, like those of a large mad dog.

[To Be Continued]-->


	76. Reaching Nirvana

"Jotaro!" Kakyoin shouted. "We should do something, we can't sit still while Polnareff is bleeding out!"

"He is right. If you have any clever tricks in mind, right now would be the best time!" Weiss walked behind him, intending to shake his seemingly still body, but she stopped at the sound of Erde's voice:

"Clever tricks? What clever tricks could possibly save you from this situation? I know! Running away like cowards!" He laughed, "If you surrender now, I promise the drop to the ground below us will be quick and painless."

"S-Shut up! Don't underestimate us!" Yang shouted, but even she didn't know what to do in that situation, she simply couldn't even consider the thought of giving up once they got so far.

"He's right."

"H-Huh…?" Everyone looked at Jotaro with incredulous looks. He was staring down at the ground, his fists clenched in pure anger.

"I said he's right. There's no space for clever tricks here. We don't have anything on us that could be useful. The traps are all invisible, and besides those this room is completely barren."

Erde clapped, "I'm glad you finally realized this!"

"And that's why…" He looked up, staring at Erde from the other side of the long room. "When clever tricks fail us….We. No, not we,  _I_ will brute force my way through here!"

"What?!" Erde looked at Jotaro like he was utterly insane. "That's impossible, you can''t get through my trap field!"

"Jotaro, no!" Ruby stood up, reaching out a hand to him. "You can't do that, you'll just die!"

He didn't listen. Star Platinum in all its glory appeared behind Jotaro, and suddenly locked his arms under Jotaro's armpits. Then, the Stand began lifting him up from the ground. "Just stay back. If you were hurt by the explosions this all would be pointless."

"NO! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Yang jumped forward in an attempt to stop him, but the moment she reached out a hand to grab him...Star Platinum jumped forward, and Jotaro was pushed along with it.

"He's gone completely nuts!" Blake shouted. Star Platinum started hopping forward, holding up Jotaro and lifting him off the ground while doing so. In any other situation this action would seem incredibly silly...but this was completely different.

With every jump he leaped over a bit further. Jotaro knew that it was inevitable until the traps would go off on him, his only hope was that, thanks to Star Platinum's speed and strength, he would have been able to outrun them. He started gathering more and more speed with each jump, miracolously not jumping into any of the invisible traps for a while, until…

_Click_

"Stay back!" Yang quickly turned around as she heard that sound, running towards the others and quickly grabbing them under her arms, forcing them to get as far away from where Jotaro was as possible without actually exiting the room. She made them all lay down, and while of course she couldn't use her body to shield all four of them, she definitely tried.

_**KA-BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.** _

_Three_ explosives were set off by Jotaro's jumps. Three balls of smoke and fire went off and stained the stark-white ground with ash. But Jotaro still managed get out of the explosions completely unharmed!

Most of them slowly stood up, covering their ears. A bit dazed by the explosion but nobody was injured. Yang coughed a bit. "I can't believe it, he's actually doing it." she commented

"W-Wait…if speed can work...then…!" Ruby gasped and then hit the side of her head, how didn't she think of that?! She was in such utter despair that she completely forgot about her own Semblance. She stood up and looked over at Polnareff's unconscious body while the others stared at Jotaro in awe.

With a deep sigh, she stepped forward, tapping into her reserves of Aura to activate her Semblance. And with a flash she was gone, turned into a spearhead of red petals. It swiped towards Polnareff and scooped him up like a small tornado. His body seemed to turn into a bullet of petals too, this time silver, hovering quickly around Ruby as she did a U-turn and rushed back towards the others

A second later, another explosion rang out behind her. If she hadn't activated her semblance, it would have definitely caught her in the blast.

They all rushed over to Polnareff's side as Ruby turned back to her regular form and dropped the Frenchman down to the safe ground. "We need to bandage these wounds as quickly as possible, we can't have him pass out on us in the final battle." Kakyoin stated. He unbuttoned his green uniform and ripped off a piece of his under-shirt in order to salvage a very, very basic bandage. But they couldn't stop the bleeding fully if the fragments of the explosions were still stuck on his body.

"I-I don't think anyone here has medical treatment, right?" Ruby cautiously asked, not even knowing how to begin at removing foreign objects from someone's body without accidentally making things worse.

"Wait a minute…" Blake looked up, holding up the back of Polnareff's hand with one hand. "Ruby, couldn't you help out Jotaro by using your Semblance?"

Ruby looked over at the rest of the room and quickly shook her head, "No no, no way my Semblance can last for that long without a second of rest. I-I'm sorry to say this...but I'll have to leave it to JoJo this time."

Yang was the only one standing up, looking over at Jotaro. He was jumping forward like a maddened rabbit, avoiding by a hair's breath explosions after explosions, that gradually got farther and farther away from the others. It was obvious that she was more than worried for him. Not because she didn't have faith in him or his abilities, but….It was just a gut feeling she couldn't help feeling.

Jotaro got halfway across the room, somehow, picking up more and more speed with every jump Star Platinum made. Jumps became leaps, going several feet forward in just one jump, setting off less and less explosions less time.

"You all struggle so uselessly. It would have been just better if you gave up earlier!" Erde derided Jotaro and the ones trying to save Polnareff, pitying them even. Standing completely shirtless, his skin pale as ash, "Fine then! Hat-boy here won't leave this place alive, that's one-hundred percent certain!"

They didn't even bother listening to him, Jotaro was too bothered jumping forward and the others started slowly pulling out the foreign objects from the wounds. Slowly, carefully. Hierophant Green was especially useful, as not only it allowed for an extra set of hands, it was a rather precise stand too. It was at a moment like that they wished Josuke was still there with them.

Jotaro seemed to inch ever further towards Erde and his Stand. Giving him a look that seemed to convey 'I'm going to kick your ass ino next week'. But then, just as he seemed to get close to them, something unexpected happened.

He jumped again, avoiding another small explosion that could have took a chunk of his leg off. He soared forward, and suddenly, Jotaro felt a sudden pressure on his front. Like a string. No, not just one string, several strings, so many strings it felt like he collided against a web. His movements seemed to slow down ever-so-slightly, and then those invisible wires snapped audibly, all at once.

Jotaro's eyes widened. Only at that moment realizing on what he stepped into.

Several explosions went off all at once, filling the room with a sudden ringing sound. How many could they have been? Maybe ten, fifteen explosions that went off at once? The walls, the roofs, the floor, part of it near Jotaro engulfed into balls of smoke and fire which then completely covered everything in a thick smoke, creating a grey, smokey wall that covered a quarter of the room.

Jotaro didn't let out a single sound, nobody could see anything of what happened. Yang looked more panicked than ever, she thought he had this in the bag, that Erde couldn't possibly have more tricks up his sleeve other than the mine field. And then THIS happened! She rushed forward. It took the combined effort of Hierophant Green, Blake, and Weiss to hold her back. "JoJo!" She shouted.

Weiss gritted her teeth, holding and pulling her right arm with both of her hands. Their arms shook as they struggled in opposite directions. "C-Calm down, Yang! Calm down!" She knew how odd of a thing it was to tell her in that situation. Someone they've been knowing for who knows how long might have just died, and she knew how much he meant for everyone, but especially Yang. That's exactly why they had to keep her calm. If she went berserk, she would have threw her life into the trapped field with no thoughts for her safety, and she would have died for nothing.

She still kept struggling, completely going off the wall with worry and anger. It was like she was seeing red, like she couldn't see the impending danger if she just stepped a bit further. All that she seemed to want was determine Jotaro's situation.

Erde smiled and cupped his chin . "A bombastic end for such a stoic and dull boy." As he said that, the smoke wall started to quickly dissipate

With dramatic timing, something plummeted down from the ceiling….heading straight towards Erde. "Huh?" He looked upwards. Something big, seemingly coming from the ceiling, stared to drop towards him at high speed. He squinted his eyes, trying to understand what it was, and then…

He didn't have time to shout or gasp. Star Platinum's clenched fist drove towards him, and he quickly imposed his hands forward to summon a purple shield. The punch made the shield tremble, and the pent up momentum let out in the impact was powerful enough to let out a visible shockwave and stun the vampire. After that, in a seamless action, Jotaro used Star Platinum's body to cushion the impact and land safely on top of the hovering platform. He didn't stop there, he ducked and swooped Erde's legs from under him with a well placed kick. Making him fumble and fall to the ground.

"You're alive! But...HOW?!" Erde Steele shouted incredulous. He attempted to stand up, but Star Platinum punched him square in the face. A punch that would have sent any regular human to the hospital, but 'only' caused some skull fractures to the vampire. He spat blood with wide eyes, splattering it on Jotaro's pants.

"You want to know how?" He asked, with just the slightest hint of a smirk. Besides a few bruises, he didn't seem injured at all.

Yang let out a breath of relief the moment she saw him. She stopped trying to go towards him, and shouted "Beat him up good!"

"T-Tell me!" The bleeding vampire screamed out.

Jotaro shook his head. It was...annoying to explain things for him, but if he didn't he wouldn't have gotten that satisfaction. He would have rubbed on his face just why he lost. "That web of invisible wires...They acted as triggers for the explosives planted around. I don't know how the explosives were made, or were made of, so I can only guess, but...due to how the trigger worked there must have been at least a slight delay compared to landmines or C4 explosives."

Erde gritted his teeth. "That's impossible, it must have been a half-a-second delay, you wouldn't have survived that anyway!"

"You're right, I wouldn't have..." Then, he smirked, looked back at the group faaaar on the other side of the room, and then looked back at him. "If it weren't for the fact that I stopped time in that half a second."

Erde's eyes widened. "You WHAT?!"

"I can only stop time for about two to three seconds, but those were more than enough. The momentum of my jump pushed me forward a little bit further during the stopped time, enough that when the shock.-wave hit me, it stopped being fatal, and instead pushed me upwards, and now I'm here

Erde's irises dilated, his fanged mouth started dripping blood, his blood. Then, he started laughing. "Hehe...hahaha….It seems that even when you say you're going to brute-force your way through, you're still using your clever tricks. I guess it must something in your blood."

He slowly stood up, flexing his muscles at Jotaro. "Then I guess I will fight you man to-"

Jotaro, not Star Platinum, proceeded to kick him in the face mid-sentence and make him fall off the floating platform. Erde screamed out, reaching out his arms to grab the edge of the platform, but Jotaro would have none of that. He kicked him in the face, which resulted in him falling and falling.

_Click_

**BOOM**

Erde screamed as one of his own explosives literally shattered his body. His legs were the first ones to fly off his body, and his arms were full-on destroyed by the head-on explosion. His body caught in flames as he kept screaming. Something like that would have killed any human, but being a vampire he still kept living, burning up into the fire.

And then, he was nothing but ash.

In that moment, the vampire Erde Steele, master of the Stand 'Two Steps from Hell', died for good.

Like a veil being lifted, the moment after his death all the invisible explosives became visible. They all had a purple light around them, that then went out in the next second. The souls of the Stand started writhing and moving and breaking free. They started breaking the shell they were trapped in, and all at once a torrent of humans souls spiralled upwards and broke through the ceilings, going up and up and up and up….and then they were gone.

Polnareff slowly opened his eyes, looking up at Ruby who looked at the scene in awe. "H-Huh? What happened? Where did that blood-sucking bastard go?"

Ruby let out a long, long sigh of relief. "We won."

* * *

Pyrrha stabbed her sword through the Purple Grunt's throat, then slashed sideways, decapitating it cleanly.

"Too many, there way too many here!" Jaune's shield blocked a couple of bullets. He was completely on the defensive. But could you blame him? There were bout 50 Purple Soldiers right in front of them, marching towards them.

"We need to have a tactical retreat, now!" Ren shouted.

"Wait a minute, what's happening?" Nora stated after smacking a way with the tip of her hammer a couple of Grunts.

The Purple Soldiers, big and small, suddenly...went to their knees, lifeless. They waited a minute. Nothing, they wouldn't get up.

Pyrrha instinctively looked upwards at the giant floating factory….and noticed to her horror that it started plummeting down and down, towards the center of the city.

She gasped. "I think that deserves a tactical retreat, we must warn everyone!"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the very depths of the factory, deeper than even the heart, a man slowly stood up, covered in shadows. "Nir-va-na." He let out a cold whisper.

It was time.

[To Be Continued]-->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this, the true final arc of the story has started: The Nirvana Arc. The final battle is inevitable. I hope everyone that came this far enjoyed this story I've created. Since this is truly the beginning of the end, what was your favourite 'arc' or battle? Or maybe a moment in the story that was particularly memorable? Feel free to tell me.


	77. One-Sided

Erde Steele was dead. The trapped souls that powered all of the Stand's creation were freed. The Purple Soldiers, the explosives, and everything else were powered down.

Jotaro stepped over the fields of explosives, walked up to the group nonchalantly...and dropped to his knees, panting for air.

Polnareff, who was bandaged up and was stretching his limbs looked over at Jotaro. "I have no idea what you did, but...you look kind of pale, even paler than me...And hell, I almost bled out!"

Yang supported him up, hoisting his arm over her shoulder, glancing at him once or twice, showing some concern.

Ruby walked forward, hoisting her scythe on her shoulder. "So, ah...what now? Where's the victory fanfare?"

The area suddenly began to tremble and shake violently, making them gasp and almost fall over from the intensity Ruby quickly looked up and shouted:. "N-Not what I asked!"

"What is happening now?!" Weiss looked around, as if looking if anyone there had the answer.

Blake felt the whole floating building slowly but visibly tip to one side and shouted: "I wouldn't want to alarm you but….all things considered, I think we're falling. To be more specific, I think the entire factory is falling!"

The room seemed to turn over like a rolling cube. They smacked their backs against what was once the wall. "Brace your butts and pray to your god of choice, we're going to need some major luck here!" Yang moved a stray lock of golden hair from her forehead. All this rolling and tumbling was going to ruin her hair, damn it!

They felt the building was picking up speed as it fell down and down towards the city below. There was no way to stop it or escape from that mess. A sense of general panic surrounded the former 'heart' of the factory. And then.

It crashed in the middle of the city, slamming down like a downed UFO onto buildings and roads, and utterly decimating them. The impact decimated several creatures of Grimm that stood below, crushing them under the sheer weight of the building, even some truly big ones. The factory, once floating proudly above the city it was aiming to invade, now laid down into a crater of its own creation, completely and utterly destroyed.

Of course, the people over at Beacon definitely noticed that, and while there was relief that all the Purple Soldiers were gone, they still were left with that sense that something was...off. Plus a giant unknown thing crashing in the middle of the city certainly does not raise morale much.

However, finally the tide seemed to turn, several soldiers, human and mechanized, started advancing from the school the moment the factory smashed on the ground and the inactivity of what once were the Purple Soldiers was confirmed they wasted no time in preparing the evacuation procedure, this time it had to work, it just had to.

Ruby slowly stood up, dusting off some small debris that got stuck in her short red-tinted hair. "Please, please tell me everyone's okay."

"I-It was no damn joyride, I can tell you that." Polnareff slowly stood up, green in the face and looking like he was about to puke. He clutched at his stomach trying to keep the nausea in.

The others then, one after another, slithered out of the rubble . The room they were in was mostly intact….emphasis on 'mostly', debris was scattered everywhere and a wall was seemingly torn open by the drop, and for the first time in a while they saw the sunlight's rays coming from the outside. The drop was so destructive to the outside that they couldn't see any of the Grimms that were previously swarming the city even get close to them.

Jotaro intently looked over at the exit, like a man on a mission. "Dio...where the hell are you hiding?"

Kakyoin looked around, a worried expression on his face. "It's morning, the sunlight's rays are penetrating the ruined factory, could it mean we've already won without realizing it?"

"That sounds...too easy." Yang started, and then bumped her fists together with a fierce look in his face. "Plus, I've been waiting for so long to meet this Dio guy, and beat the effing crap outta hi,."

"That does sound too easy. Too...convenient." Blake looked around, pinching her chin in contemplation. "By the way you three have been talking about him, it sounds like Dio is the type of person that escaped death several times. I doubt he would go himself in an all out assault on a Kingdom, lasting for more than one day, and not have a backup plan in case things go bad for him."

Suddenly, a foreign voice, a voice Team RWBY had never even heard before, spoke up: "Try and overclock your pathetic little brains in an attempt to understand me. What matters here is that none of you will survive this." A man with the most condescending tone they had ever heard spoke up from behind them.

They quickly turned around, and lo and behold: Dio Brando. Though he looked a bit...different from how Jotaro's group described him. Instead of medium length blond hair, long silvery hair fell down to his shoulders. His body, adorned with revealing clothes, specifically a V-cut shirt that showed off his torso, was covered in thick black-purple veins. What looked like a crown of thorns laid on top of his forehead. And...he floated off the ground just ever so slightly, like some sort of divine being both figuratively and literally looking down at everything else.

And not only that. The sunlight was clearly hitting his body, and he didn't even attempt to move out of the way. The sun simply did…nothing, nothing at all.

His one weakness, sunlight, was no longer effective on him.

Ruby was left speechless for a few moments, she just looked forward, wide-eyed before speaking up "This...w-wait. Could it be? This is the result of the Ultimate Elixir?"

Dio raised a hand, "Indeed. When I drank that sinful black sludge, it felt like my cold, undead body sprung back to life, stronger than ever before." He looked around with a smug smirk on his face. "Look at all of you, shocked and afraid before I, Dio. I am no longer a vampire, one might say I'm even...a god of fear and hatred."

"What the hell does that mean, ya dirty rotten bastard?!" Polnareff shouted. Him being roughed up by the explosion didn't stop him from insulting Dio.

"I guess you'll find out soon enough. Take up arms or summon your Stands, it makes no difference to me." He stated in a dismissive manner. His feet, which hovered slightly off the ground, gently returned to the surface. "In fact...I'll fight all of you without using my Stand, so I can show you just how useless your struggles up until now were."

"Your body changes, but your shitty personality hasn't made any progress since the last time we fought." Jotaro stated, spite and hatred slithering out of his mouth.

Kakyoin did a double-take at those words, snapping back towards Jotaro. "Last...time? Jotaro, we never fought Dio before, remember?"

Jotaro's eyes widened at his slip of the tongue.

Dio simply laughed at the scene, "It seems you've never even informed your friend of his fate by my hand, haven't you?"

Polnareff started slightly sweating, complicit in that too. How were they supposed to tell a friend of theirs that they saw him dying to the enemy they were supposed to defeat?

"JoJo, what is he talking about?" Ruby, clutching tight on her Crescent Rose, looked over at Jotaro.

For the first time in a long while, he didn't exactly know what to say, one might say he was flustered, even.

Dio didn't let this chance slip. Like the dirty cheater he was he grinned and rushed forward like a crazed beast. He was going so fast it was difficult for them to even see him. In less than two seconds he was right in front of Jotaro, and raised an arm in an attempt to punch him.

"What the-" Jotaro immediately sumoned Star Platinum to block his body. No matter how powerful a Stand User may be, they themselves had no way of damaging the Stand. That was the one thing he was absolutely sure of.

And, in a way, he was right. Instead of attacking the Stand head-on, he moved blindingly fast, striding around Jotaro and throwing a punch towards him. He was going even faster than Star Platinum, it was utter insanity for hi, he could barely move his Stand to block the punch, and ultimately failed. The curled-up first hit him in the gut, making him reel and fly back in pain.

He skid along the ground, holding his stomach as he jumped to stand up. "W-What the fuck is this?"

Yang immediately flared up in anger at the sight. She silently leaped forward from behind, reeled back her arm and attempted to punch Dio as hard as she could.

"Useless."

Dio grabbed her arm nearly effortlessly and his strength to throw her. He slammed her on the ground head-first. He raised a foot and tried crush her head under his boot. Dio had a crazed, blood-lusty expression, his eyes flared red and he shouted "Die!"

Then, Dio felt something and sharp, like needles, repeatedly being stabbed on his back. Weiss rushed forward with the help of her Glyphs, and started slashing and stabbing the fiend on his back. However, even though the holes in his back started to bleed a black, blood-like ooze, he barely flinched.

Weiss backed off as the distracted Dio looked over at her. Yang did not let this chance go. She gritted her teeth and raised her closed fist and pointed it towards him. Her gauntlet let out a shotgun plast that hit his head completely.

He rocked back for a second, before looking at her with an annoyed look more than anything.

She rolled away and stood up, it might not have hurt him, but at least it bought her time to get away from him.

Weiss, however, wasn't as lucky. Dio rushed towards her and before she could do anything, Dio kicked her hip and sent her reeling back from the hit. Then, while she was still in mid-air from the kick, he raised a fist and slammed it right onto her face. Her Aura flickered, only barely protecting her from the attack. With a loud  _ **thud**_ she fell onto the ground, coughing and barely standing up.

Ruby and Polnareff rushed towards him from both ends, screaming in anger at the top of their lungs. Silver Chariot and her raised their weapons and attempted to attack him on both ends.

"DIOOO! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" Polnareff screamed out. Silver Chariot's armor immediately popped off and attacked him at the speed of sound stabbing and stabbing.

But then he realized...he wasn't attacking Dio. Ruby reeled back from the pain of the rapier. She looked over at Polnareff, breathing heavily and with a lock that wanted to tell him 'What the hell, man?!'

Polnareff looked around and noticed that Dio Brando backed away at the last second before he could hit him. Silver Chariot, mimicking his User's emotions, looked down horrified at his rapier. If she didn't have Aura protecting her, Polnareff would have turned her into a pincushion.

Dio clapped his hands in a very condescending way. "You impress me, Polnareff, even at this condition your unarmored form is still faster than me...But it's still not enough. Realize this, maggots. You can't beat me, not now, not ever."

Blake and Kakyoin were the only ones who didn't attack him, yet. They looked at each other. Non-verbally asking each-other 'what're we supposed to do now?'

A sudden sound of metallic, armored footsteps came from behind them and interrupted the fight. Several soldiers, of Vale and of Atlas, were running down the street, heading for the big gaping hole that led right to them.

"Wait, no! Don't come here!" Ruby shouted, but they couldn't hear her at this distance. Dio started running towards the exit, kicking up dust with every heavy step he did. He sprinted past Team RWBY and the three Stand Users with a wicked grin and bloodshot eyes.

He climbed over the rubble and ran out like a maddened wolf to outside streets of Vale. They were so stunned that they couldn't help but follow where he went.

"We need to stop him. Now." Yang, for once, took the lead. None of them were seriously injured from their scuffle with him. But he didn't even use his Stand, he intentionally held back to show off. If he did not have any restraint, he might have killed them right then and there.

"W-What are we even supposed to do?!" Polnareff shouted, "We don't even know if his Stand is still The World. We have absolutely no idea what he can do now that he got the Elixir."

They started running towards the exit, until Ruby and Jotaro suddenly stopped, for different reasons.

Ruby gasped for breath, looking at the entrance and stepping forward just slightly. "This...No, it's all my fault. If...If I tried to track down the carrier, if we managed to get the Elixir and destroy it before he could use it. This….This all wouldn't have happened!" The poor girl seemed like she was on the verge of tears

_Click. Click-Clack. Click._

"H-Huh?" Ruby wiped away a stray tear. The group turned around. The sound, similar to something small and mechanical being turned, came from….Jotaro.

He had one raised up, with his sleeve pulled down. He swiped up on his arm for reasons the others couldn't understand. Then, they took a closer look at his arm:

An ink tattoo in the shape of a needle with a combination lock on top of it laid on his arm, and every time he swiped on the lock, the letters would change.

"What're you doing? What is that?!" Polnareff shouted, before he remembered: It was the product of the first Stand they ever encountered. But….what was it, and why was it laying on Jotaro's arm?

S-T-A-N-D

"Stand?" Someone in the group asked curiously. Jotaro didn't even listen to them, he was too focused on his arm.

The lock suddenly broke, revealing words imprinted on the ink needle:  **Stand Booster**.

He took a deep breath, and the liquid started flowing within him. His eyes widened as he started feeling the power. He felt his blood boiling, his senses getting sharper...And he felt that, within him, something had changed.

He let out a deep breath. The others couldn't explain it, but they saw it too. Something within Jotaro was radically different.

He stepped forward, fists clenched and looking around like a man on a mission. His mouth twisted into a sneer of anger. "I'm going to fucking destroy you, Dio."

[To Be Continued]-->


	78. Nirvana

The five soldiers didn't even realize what was rushing towards them, suddenly their leader shouted at them to stop and pointed their rifles forward. Dio ran towards them like a crazed beast hungry for flesh, with a wide grin and bloodshot eyes to boot.

The soldiers had no idea who that was, but one thing was certain: He did not look friendly, there was no time for warning, the squad captain ordered them to fire, and volleys of Dust bullets were shot out at high speed.

The bullets collided against Dio, but he simply shrugged it all off. The bullets penetrated his skin, but didn't seem to bother him one bit. "KNEEL!" He screamed, and then, he grabbed the squad captain by the stomach and snapped her body in half like a twig, killing her instantly.

"W-What the-" Dio grabbed the Atlas soldier's face before he could and slammed his body against the ground, smashing his head open.

The three remaining stumbled back in fear, one of them even falling ass-first onto the ground. "A-Aaah!"

Dio turned around, giving them the evil eye. "Kneel to your king of fear." And then, at that moment, a large, shadowy figure appeared and stood right beside him. Dark, metallic body with unnatural veins running across its entirety, the eyes glowing maliciously, on its back rested two tankards that seemed full of...something. "Fear me. Hate me. Feed me. Become my thralls!"

Nirvana's eyes glowed even brighter. They shuddered and screamed, trying desperately to get awy, but they felt paralysed, then...something within them stirred, like something trying desperately to get out of their body.

Black ooze started seeping from their eyes and mouths. They all went to their knees, their screams muffled by the liquid that quickly started to cover their face like a mask, slowly going down and down their body.

He laughed under his breath, looking at his newly created 'thralls' with a look of sick satisfaction. The bodies of the soldiers were covered in that thick black, bubbling sludge, writhing and contorting on the ground. "Now, time for me to feed." He licked his lips, and Nirvana slowly hunched down.

"DIIOOOO!" A low but powerful shout echoed across the entire street. Before even Dio knew it, something slammed against him with the power of a bullet train.

Nirvana stood in front of its user and crossed its arms together a second before the flying fists slammed against him, blocking the attack just in time. "What the-"

"Burn in hell forever, you rotten bastard!" Jotaro shouted with the most passion and fury he ever held in his body. His body looked like it was covered in flames...but not literal flames, it was as if his soul itself was set ablaze. From his body jumped out his Stand, but even Star Platinum looked different.

Red markings covered its chest and lower torso, glowing faintly. Its hair looked crimson, like a raging fire. It landed an uppercut, making the unprepared Nirvana stumble back. Dio himself was pushed back, and looked at Jotaro. "So...fast."

The now changed Star Platinum rushed forward and with a powerful 'Ora!' brought its fist down onto the ground, attempting to squash Dio under its fist. Dio jumped sideways at just the last moment, and the resulting fist smashing against the asphalt created a shockwave visible to the naked eye. Dio's body was none the less propelled forward, smashing against the side of a building.

"Gaah...No matter what, you always find away to be my match." He quickly regained his composure, dusted himself off and started laughing. "Aaah, this is just like the last time, it's like we're fated to fight like this, Jotaro Kujo!"

"I'm not here to have a fucking chat with you about fate, I'm here to dig your grave. And make sure you never fucking leave it again." Jotaro stepped forward, Star Platinum standing by his side.

Dio too started approaching him, mirroring his movement. He felt hit by a wave of nostalgia to that fated battle in Egypt, the fight and loss, that, in his mind, paved the way to a success he never would have even imagined.

"Then let us fight."

It was like a western duel set in a desolated and destroyed city. With their Stands right in front of them, they started at each other for five seconds, waiting for the other to act….And then, when one even twitched a finger….

**ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA**

**USELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELEESS!**

Their fists collided against each other. Star Platinum, who previously could barely keep up with him, now was Dio's complete equal. The exchanging of blows seemed to make the whole street quake.

This went on for a solid thirty seconds, and neither of them seemed to get a blow on the other. That was, until Jotaro pointed at Dio and shouted: "Star Platinum: The World!"

"Wha-"

It was like the world twisted and changed, time crawled to a halt, and all color seemed to have been sucked out in that stopped time, and to Jotaro's surprise….Dio was frozen as well.

_The hell? He lost his ability to stop time?_

He couldn't let a chance like this slide. He ran over behind him, and quickly Star Platinum's fist bashed against the back of his head. Then, time started to move forward again.

"BGAAH?!" Dio shouted incoherent gargles as he felt his body be propelled forward at incredibly high velocity. His head started bleeding, but not bleed blood….but a goopy, purple liquid, similar of those of the Grimm. He spun on himself before rolling on the ground and hitting his back against yet another wall.

He quickly stood to his knees, giving Jotaro a vampiric hiss. Even though he was no longer a vampire, old habits died hard. "Stealing...my past ability...Even the name...That just shows how you're stuck in the past."

"Keep your loser talk to yourself." Jotaro couldn't control himself, he was seeing red and was charging head first like a bull ramming against a Matador. Dio pushed a foot down and pushed his body upwards.

He started to levitate off the ground, quickly ascending more and more up in the air, until he was basically flying through the hair. He smirked down at Jotaro as he flipped back and stood on top of the roof of one of the tall buildings. Then, he turned around, and started running.

"Damned cheater." Jotaro looked around quickly, looking for anything….Then, he ran over to the wall and gripped onto a thick water pipe that went up and up to the roof. Planting his feet on the wall, he started climbing quickly and roughly. The pipe creaked, trying desperately to hold onto Jotaro's weight.

After a while he reached the roof, jumped on top of it, and ran towards the direction Dio went. He ran forward and looked around, but Dio was nowhere to be seen…

He groaned, "Where are you hiding, you rat bastard? Too afraid that I'll bash your skull in like last time?" He taunted, taking a vigilant eye around...

Meanwhile, near the wreckage of the fallen factory, the rest of the group saw the scene unfold. "He just...rushed at him like that, but he is holding his own!" Weiss commented, it was as if they were spectating some sort of fight in a comic book or a videogame. "Damn it, why couldn't he have waited for us to formulate a plan? Now what do we do?"

Polnareff's Silver Chariot sliced the air in anticipation. "Obvious, isn't it? While Jotaro keeps 'im busy, we gang up on him, and Dio's reign of terror's over."

For once, the voice of reason in this situation was….Ruby. "No, we can't do that. We don't know what would happen if we fought him all at once, he might pull out some crazy move and wipe us out with one attack."

"Effectively, we don't actually know what his Stand does." Blake stated, "It really could just be anything."

"Hey, what the heck!" Yang spoke up, "So you just want to leave him there and fix all of our problems? No, no way, I'm not letting him have all the glory."

Weiss in particular gave her a side-eye and then rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, if that is your excuse."

Ruby shook her head and quickly explained: "I'm not saying we shouldn't help him! I'm saying we have to...pick and choose when. When that guy least expects it, BAM! We'll catch the opening with both hands and help Jotaro out!"

"Y-Yeah...haha….that's all well and good, but, uh….what's happening up there?" Polnareff, losing a bit of his previous confidence. pointed upwards at the sky. Was it their imagination or was it a hundred times more cloudy than a moment ago?

And where Polnareff was pointing, Dio was hovering in the air, high up in the sky, so high that he could have flown over any building in the area. He looked down at Jotaro, who upon noticing him stared right back. "Even in this powered up form, your Star Platinum is nothing more than a mindless brute that punches anything in its path. Nirvana,  _My_ Nirvana is the perfect Stand, and let me show you why!"

Nirvana, hovering in the air, hunched over, and the purple 'oxygen' tanks resting on its shoulders suddenly...opened. And then, it was like a vortex surrounded the sky. A storm of dark clouds gathered together and swirled above Nirvana. But they weren't clouds, it was evident when the flying Grimm up above flew around it, as if they were attracted to them.

They were huge clouds of negative emotions. There was no other way to put it. And where was that cloud initiating from? The line was visible: It was all coming from Beacon Academy, where all the survivors huddled up.

The vortex of negativity then quickly funnelled into Nirvana's canisters, absorbing the entire vortex. Dio screamed ecstatic as an indescribable feeling washed over him. The veins, both on him and on Nirvana, glowed a faint purple as the lid of the tanks closed.

"Aaaah. I feel great! This is way, WAAAY better than blood!"

Blake gasped, he was being so loud they could hear him from down there."What the f-"

"He...is feeding onto the negative emotions of people?" Weiss muttered, not sure if she could even believe something like that.

"Let me reveal to you just one of my Stand's abilities: It has the ability to devour the negative emotions of mortals, and transform that into sustenance and power! The reason why my Stand is perfect...is because it can evolve, the more it consumes the stronger it gets, even I have no idea what kind of power will sprout out of me." He looked down at Jotaro with a wicked grin, completely ignoring the others, focused on a single target.

"It...It makes sense now..." Kakyoin looked over with wide eyes. "That's why he didn't kill everyone in the city, even though he had enough manpower to do it. His goal wasn't to destroy, but to terrorize so he could feed on the negativity that permeated the city!"

Jotaro gritted his teeth. If what Dio was saying was true, then he had no way of predicting what he could do next. Dio then started falling down from the sky at high speed, like a professional swimmer doing a dive bomb into the water, only as fast as a bullet.

Jotaro didn't have time to prepare himself for the attack. He attempted dodging sideways but he was still in his trajectory. Nirvana pinned down Jotaro, mimicking its user's smug grin.

The resulting collision was like an explosion went off on the roof. Their bodies crashed through the roof and fell back into the inside of the building, creating a large man-sized hole in what was once a smooth roof, destroying the cement like it was a stale cracker. Chunks flew everywhere, and the pain that resulted would have been unbearable to any normal person.

Jotaro, instinctively, closed his eyes to protect them from the debris. After his body slammed down onto the pavement, pain wrecking his back, he he quickly threw a punch in the air in case Dio was still attempting to pin him down, but his attack hit the air. Without missing a beat, he stood up as if he felt no pain at all, or was just enduring it very very well.

He was inside...a kitchen, a completely normal kitchen you'd find in any household, with white walls and a chessboard-styled pavement. Jotaro didn't even care that he just invaded somebody's house, he was just too focused on his goal.

He attempted to go towards the door, but noticed something...It was closed, if Dio had run away, why would he care about closing the door behind him? He could have just ripped it off from its hinges for all he cared about property damage. He looked around, and noticed something strange was reflecting off of the sunlight that was shining through the window.

They camouflaged almost perfectly near the stark white fridge. They looked like cuts in space itself. He took a few steps closer to examine them. They seemed to be….wind, static wind that hovered above the ground and reflected off sunlight, and they were shaped like a blade's edge.

Jotaro blinked, and he realized: There were dozens of those static wind-blades inside the kitchen. He backed away a little, away from the blades in an innate survival instinct. His eyes widened at another sudden realization, "Is this..." He gritted his teeth in anger. "You gained another power, didn't you?!" He shouted, as if talking to Dio himself.

Jotaro's heart pumped as much adrenaline as it humanly could. If he didn't have enough self control he'd already be destroying the kitchen to search for his nemesis. But he must stop himself, he had no idea what those small wind blades could do. He reached out towards a plastic cup that was a little bit too close to the edge of a cupboard, and threw it at one of the many wind-blades hovering in the room like small sentries.

As soon as the plastic cup collided, it was torn in half so quickly that it felt like Jotaro threw it towards a chainsaw. Then, the two halves got stuck on the blade, as if sucked in by a vacuum, and got torn to shreds. He couldn't help but wince as what once was a plastic cup turned into dust.

He exhaled deeply. If he rushed head-on, that new power could have ripped him to bacon stripes. He looked around once more. "I promised to myself...that I'd end you. I won't let a new gimmick of yours stop me!"

[To Be Continued]-->


	79. Devourer of Fear

The light shined through the hole in the ceiling, illuminating the kitchen Jotaro stumbled upon in his fight with Dio. Half of the room was surrounded by the mysterious wind-blades that hovered high and low. While small, those blades seemed to be effectively concentrated, thin gusts of wind that swirled around in one single place at super-sonic speed. If Jotaro had to do an estimation, he would have had to guess that those blades could cut through bars of pure steel.

He counted one, two, three, four, ten, twenty, thirty, forty. Fifty small blades, not any wider than an inch each. He didn't feel it before, but he started feeling something strange...His clothes started to get sucked towards the blades. The furniture and the plates and everything in the room were shaking like if they were shook by an earthquake. The chain on his uniform was clicking and clanking ominously.

Jotaro gritted his teeth and held onto his hat for dear life, and while his eyes were full of righteous rage and disdain, he was left with no choice. If he stayed in the room trying to search for Dio, eventually the vacuum of the wind-blades would intensify to a point where his entire body would be dragged kicking and screaming into a whirlwind of near-invisible blades. He even smelled something odd, like…a gas leak, most likely as an incidental side-effect of the wind-blades.

He had to use that technique. His grandfather taught him, and he told him to only use it in the most desperate of situations. He didn't even use it during his first fight with Dio when he still had The World. He said it was a technique passed down from generation to generation.

He….

Ran away. Fast as a lightning bolt he headed towards the kitchen's door and torn it off its hinges with one solid kick. He ran towards what looked like a dining room with a large table, a couch, and a TV, the only light that shined through the room was, once again, the gradually dimming sunlight, covered up by huge clouds. A lonely, half-empty bottle of beer and zip lighter laid on the ground, testament to the owner of the house that, hopefully, escaped. He also noticed a large, man-sized set of windows on one end of the room, mostly broken during either the invasion or the

He stood around the couch on the other side of the room, as far away from the kitchen as possible. Then he realized at that moment he made a huge mistake: Now that the door was ripped off nothing was stopping the gas leak from spreading. Star Platinum grabbed the large, oblong table and slammed it down in front of the entrance to the kitchen's entrance. It was bigger than the door, but it would have only slowed down the gas at best.

Well, not even that. A few seconds after he plopped down the table, a fist coming from the inside the kitchen smashed clean through the wooden furniture, creating a fist-sized hole. Then another punch, and then a flurry of punches from within destroyed the table.

Dio Brando, covered in shadows and thin gas. He stared at Jotaro. "Why are you running, Jotaro Kujo?" His eyes glowed menacingly, his crown of thorn placed on top of his head creating a disturbing silhoutte. "Why are you running?"

Jotaro's heart skipped a bit. He was right after all. Dio was hiding in the kitchen all along, and not only that, he seemed completely immune to his own wind-blades and the vacuum that they created, and the gas didn't seem to bother him one bit, he was inhaling it all like it was oxygen….Or was he even breathing at all?

He looked down at the ground, and something in his head...clicked. Gas leak, beer, lighter. "STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!"

Time stop for those needed two-three seconds. Star Platinum grabbed the beer bottle, a handkerchief and the lighter. He put the the handkerchief inside the bottleneck of the beer bottle, and time started to flow again. Star Platinum threw the makeshift Molotov cocktail towards its user and Jotaro quickly grabbed it.

Dio didn't even seem to notice what happened, instead he kneeled down….And leaped forward like a pouncing lion. The blackened visage of Nirvana appeared right in front of him and started to charge up its fists.

Star Platinum, boosted by Jotaro's anger and the Stand Steroid, had a speed advantage over Nirvana at that particular moment. It grabbed a wooden chair and lifted it over its head, and like a wrestler he smashed it on top of Nirvana's head! The chair broke into pieces, and became little more than sticks.

"G-Guh!" splutters of thick, Grimm-esque blood sprayed out of Dio's head. Stunned by the attack and Star Platinum's near supersonic speed, Dio was left vulnerable for the briefest of moments.

_ORA. ORAAAAA!_

One straight right punch to the face, and then an uppercut that sent Nirvana and Dio flying across the room, landing on the floor on all fours and sliding down like an angry cat. Star Platinum's fist sent him back towards the kitchen.

_Now!_

He lit up the lighter and started burning the handkerchief, which started to quickly spread heat towards the alcohol within the bottle…

Dio widened his eyes when he realized what Jotaro had planned. Even the lightest spark or even the flame of a lit cigarette during a gas leak could result into an explosion containing enough energy to blow the room to hell and back. But with the fire of a Molotov cocktail, and the amount of gas that permeated the kitchen…

Jotaro threw it and turned around. Jotaro couldn't believe he was going to do it again, even with the booster the tattoo drug gave him it wouldn't have stopped him from feeling overexerted after a while, but he had to do it if he wanted even a remote chance of surviving.

"STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!"

The Molotov stopped in mid-air as time crawled to a halt. Jotaro ran towards the large window at top speed, shielded his eyes with his arms and jumped down from the three floors building.

As soon as Jotaro felt the wind hitting his face as he fell down, he knew that time had resumed.

The entire building was engulfed in flames and a sound-shattering explosion made the entire square quake like it was an earthquake. The fire spread as quickly as it arrived, visible through the shattered windows to any who may have passed by. The flames burned everything inside to ashes, and smaller extra explosions rang out not soon after. The explosion seemed to shake the building to its very foundations, and it looked like it could turn into a pile of rubble any second now.

And this was all while Jotaro was falling. He was lucky enough to not get hit by any of the red hot debris that flew around at the speed of sound, propelled by the massive explosion.

As for the fall itself...well, he couldn't plan that far ahead, he just didn't have the time to plan on how to get a safe landing, so for once, Jotaro had to hope that he was durable enough to survive a fall like that.

He crashed onto a little burned down garden across the street, an unusual sight in such a urbanized city, but definitely a more welcome landing spot than the cold cement of the streets. He laid there for a few second, face planted against the ground.

He coughed and spat a few stray leaves that managed to get inside his mouth. Every muscle on his bode felt tired and sore and burning. He held onto a burned tree branch and slowly lifted himself up, looking at the building.

Nothing. Only rubble, fumes and flames remained. The street felt quiet, and he couldn't even see the storms of flying Grimm that just a moment ago flew high above.

He let out a satisfied sigh, leaning against the tree and breathing rhythmically. It was over, not even an undead fiend like Dio could survive an explosion like that.

Well, at least that's what Jotaro thought. Reality, however, decided to be very cruel that day.

He saw something shifting from under the rubble. His heartbeat spiked up immensely the moment he saw the figure that pushed away the huge cement boulder blocking him.

Dio had his skin burnt bad, he was covered in ashes and burn marks all over his body. Most of his clothes were but cinders that burned on his body, even his crown of thorns was gone, burned away in the explosion. He himself looked horribly injured, but not as...maimed as Jotaro hoped he would be. He jumped up, and looked over at Jotaro, and let out a breathy laugh.

"Wha...What the fuck? I-I….no. This just can't be happening…what the fuck are you made of?!" Jotaro shouted, and yet he couldn't move a muscle. The fall, the continuous time-stops, they finally took their toll on him. At that point he was utterly devoid of energy

Dio slowly walked over to him, not saying a word, just giving him a pearly-white grin. Jotaro attempted to move forward and attack, but he just couldn't, he felt every muscle on him was completely paralyzed, he just stood there like a deer about to be roadkill.

Dio lunged at him, his injuries only slightly slowing him down. Before he could react, Jotaro felt a punch right on the stomach, and then a kick to the side of the head. He fell on the ground with a grunt. Dio stood over him, grinning like a mad-man. "Bow to me. Serve me. And I just may forgive you. Let me take all that anger, all that fear..."

As a reply, Jotaro mustered all of his forces to spit right at his burned face. His grin turned into a grimace full of anger.

"Joestar scum!" He kicked the side of his ribs. Holding back so he didn't mortally injure him, just made him feel a whole lot of pain.

Jotaro grunted in pain again, he didn't know how much more of this he could take.

"Mortal fool!" He kicked his ribs again, before repeatedly stomping onto his chest while throwing his way a slew of unsavory insults.

Jotaro grunted and coughed up blood, his face contorted in anger and pain.

About twenty kicks later, Dio stopped and seemed to simmer down, as much as someone like Dio Brando could, and stepped back. He stretched out his arms, one to the right and one to the left, and looked down at Jotaro with an air of superiority. Nirvana, looking burned as well, appeared behinds its user and mimicked his pose.

Dio grinned. The oxygen tanks strapped onto Nirvana opened up again, and within seconds that horrendous vortex of negative emotions appeared high above Dio, and began to filter in inside the tanks. "This bleak and destroyed city...It reminds me of a sonnet I once read. 'Look at my works, ye mighty, and despair!'"

Jotaro noticed that a the negativity that was being sucked in by the vortex also came out of his mouth. It was a dreadful sight, like he was exhaling black fog.

As more noxious negative fumes entered the tank, the more Dio's skin regenerated. The burn scars quickly disappeared, in its place an unnaturally pale skin and purple veins. First it was his face, then his torso, then everything, not before long he was as good as new.

He stopped dramatically posing, and grabbed Jotaro by the collar, lifting him up above the ground. "Heed my words, Jotaro. There is not one thing on this world or the next that can kill me. I am truly immortal. Do you see now why I said your efforts are USELESS?!"

Jotaro looked down at him with disdain and defiance. His teeth gritted, he just struggled to get away from his grip.

And then, the unexpected happened. A ball of pure ice Dust collided against Dio's shoulders. Making him shout in pain as ice crystals began to form around his back. "W-What?!" He suddenly turned around and dropped Jotaro, eyes scanning for whatever hit him.

He noticed something. No, someone turning a corner in the street, he just managed to see the long silver hair tied up in a ponytail. He started to move, but his legs and arms felt sluggish. He peeked down and saw that the ice Dust crystals had began to cover his legs and block his muscles, slowly freezing him. The ice started to stick to the ground locking him in place

"Damn it all. It was one of those little girls!" He shouted.

"You're...ack...More resilient than a cockroach, I can tell you that much." Jotaro pushed himself off the ground, standing up and using the last reserve of energies he had. "But nothing in this world can kill you? How does your head feel, shoved up so far up your ass?"

Dio attempted to turn around, but the frozen crystals were already up to his neck. "Y-You have no energies left, you cannot fight! And I definetly will not let it end like this!"

Nirvana appeared over his shoulders, and...started turning into a goo-y, almost liquid substance. It began melting down quickly, dripping over Dio's nearly frozen body. It began to form around him, covering his entire body like a black latex suit that covered him from head to toe. And then, Jotaro could hear the sound of crystals shattering under the rubbery armor. Dio managed to turn around, and looked at his arms.

As quickly as it arrived, the armor dissolved and re-formed into Nirvana, not a trace of the crystals of ice remained. At first he was surprised as well, but then he laughed. "It seems your friend's little effort was for naught."

"A new ability, huh? It just seems like you to pull some new power out of your ass to save your hide." Jotaro looked over at his arm and pulled back the sleeve, showing off the tattoo of a syringe. Only half-empty, with the rest full of liquid that moved around along with his arm, like it was really there. He swiped on his arm and immediately the rest of the liquid was injected inside of him. Every last drop.

Immediately, a red aura enveloped him and his Stand appeared behind him. The already crimson hair it got from the first shot of the Stand steroid turned even redder, the markings glowed brightly, and Jotaro, battered bruised and bleeding, was reinvigorated with energy.

Dio grimaced, and seemed absolutely furious. "Why won't you just die already?!" he shouted, more like a punk trying to mug someone than the royal, almost divine being he wanted to pass himself as.

Jotaro seemed to tally unphazed, and simply tipped his hat. "Good grief, if you get a new name for your Stand, then so will I!" He shouted, and the new and, at least temporarily, improved Star Platinum jumped forward to meet Dio face to face again.

"My Stand's new name shall be..." He looked in thought for a second, trying to think of the perfect name. That man in front of him ruined many lives, in Remnant and on Earth. The name of the Stand that would defeat him should be something that could honor the ones he fought with all that time, at least partially. A flash of inspiration hit him, and he shouted:

"STAR RUBY!"

[To Be Continued]-->


	80. Marathon Battle Pt.1

Sparks and flames flew as the two men looked at each other. Jotaro looked around, hand in his pockets."Hmph, another ruined street...seems like a rather boring place to have our final battle. I'll go try and look for a better spot." He stated nonchalantly and smirked, giving Dio a dose of his own smug medicine. Jotaro, with his newly found strength, turned tail and started running at full speed!

"Get back here, you little fucking bastard child!" Dio barked at him in anger and started hovering above the ground, getting ready to chase him. However, he only managed to go a little bit farther till he sensed danger coming from above.

He looked up, silver hair flowing in the dreadful wind. He covered his face with his arms as he heard the sounds of bullets grazing him barely. Before he knew it a volley of bullets started raining from above. He groaned more in annoyance than in pain, looking up at his attacker:

On top of a small building, Blake Belladonna was unloading her weapon at Dio, showering him with a mix of lead and Dust. Beside her stood the huge, pillar-haired Frenchman. After seeing that the bullets got his attention, they jumped down in a surprisingly synchronized manner, one on each side of the road.

"Hold up, buddy ol' pal. You're going to get through us if you wanna get to JoJo." Polnareff shouted in confidence, showing off unarmored Silver Chariot's shining blade.

Blake held her dual blades at the ready, in a defensive position. Her expression was stern, and stared at Dio with piercing eyes.

Dio looked at them in disbelief, and snickered under his breath. "You two? It pains my cold heart to admit it, but Jotaro is the only one here that can even hold my candle to my Nirvana. And Polnareff, pardon my French, but didn't I manage to hand you a severe ass beating without bothering to be at full power? In fact, I don't feel threatened enough to attack you right now, you both seem more worthless than a one-legged blind dog."

Blake let out a 'hmph', clutching her weapons even tighter. "I can't believe this guy is just as much of a smug bastard as you said he was. Let's try  _that_ on him."

Polnareff grinned. "Man oh man, I was waiting for an occasion like this! In unison now!"

As Dio fully intended to just walk past them, both Blake and Polnareff, the most unlikely duo of the century, screamed out in perfect synchronization and in the most over the top way possible: "FUSION TECHNIQUE: WALL OF ILLUSION!"

And then, it looked as if both the unarmored Silver Chariot and Blake were dividing like cells at the speed of light, seven copies of Silver Chariot and seven copies of Blake formed around Dio in a perfect circle, and then started shuffling and running around him like they were cards in the hands of a veteran dealer.

Dio was set back by such a technique, even his evolved Nirvana, boosted by the negativity that permeated the city, couldn't even begin to perceive what was going on.

Silver Chariot was shuffling around at supersonic speed, creating several persisting after-images that looked identical to the original.

Blake, instead, was using her Semblance to the fullest, empowered by a special kind of Dust of Weiss's creation that allowed her after-images to mimic Silver Chariot's ability near perfectly. While she wasn't actually going as fast as Silver Chariot it definetly  _looked_ like she was.

"Which will it be, huh?" Blake's voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

"Pick the wrong one and you'll be open for attack!" Polnareff shouted, his body covered by the wall of illusions that surrounded Dio.

The illusions started shuffling closer and closer, tightening the circle slowly and painfully.

Dio's eyes went bloodshot, though it looked more like they were covered in purple goo. "How DARE you try to make a fool out of me!" But he couldn't attack. If he picked the wrong one it would have hurt his pride, it would have meant they successfully fooled him, he couldn't allow that.

"NIRVANA!" He shouted, and his Stand promptly answered the call. Sensing its user's orders from within, Nirvana stood only slightly further away and widened its stance.

Then, something odd happened: Thin slits opened on both of Nirvana's wrists, and then it started waving those arms and moving around like it was performing some sort of exotic dance, waving its arms all around Dio like it was weaving a shield.

An unnatural wind blew from the slits, and where the wrists moved a razor-thin blade of wind was exposed by the sunlight. Nirvana started creating circles upon circles of wind blades around Dio, until he was basically covered in a barrier of sharp static wind.

"Come to me and be cut down!" he declared from the inside of his protection.

They didn't stop, nor did they start reply to his taunts, they simply couldn't allow even the slightest chance of him discovering their true position at that point.

They kept spinning and spinning and spinning, and Dio kept staying on the defensive, covering himself in those hovering strands of wind blades as thick as a hair. This kept going on for a while, and eventually the 7 Silver Chariots and 7 Blake Belladonnas mixed together into a blurry wall.

"What do you hope to accomplish? I'm getting rather bored here!" Dio shouted. His movements lacked subtlety: He raised his arm, finally intending to strike at random, he had to swallow his pride just this once! As he took a step forward, his ribs phased through his wind blades, completely unaffected by his own creation.

And, when he did, they both stopped, and his fist struck….absolutely nothing, an after image that disappeared.

He cursed under his breath, but didn't seem particularly worried about a counter-attack by the two, and why would he? In his eyes, his defence was perfect and deadly. He spun around nigh-instantly, ready to pummel one of the two to death with Nirvana...but suddenly, the two appeared right in front of him, smirking.

Then, something blocked him...And fell ass-backwards on the ground. "WHAT?!"

He looked down at his feet: a long, thick black rope was tied around his ankles again and again, pushing the feet together. Then, he looked up the rope, and saw that it extended from Blake's weapon. It was then he realized: while he was so distracted with the wall of illusions, he didn't even notice the rope being tied around his ankle with each of Blake's spin, one of the more exposed points in his defence

The moment he realized it he was going mental: shouting and screaming and hissing at them to let him go, that he'd kill them and slaughter them and other more unsavoury stuff. Not only was he fooled once, he was being fooled all along and he didn't even realize it, and that drove him mad with anger.

Blake pulled her weapon, and rope, towards herself, managing to drag Dio along the cement road despite his writhing and high strength. "It seems I've catch myself a struggling fish here!"

"Reel 'im in and throw him away, girl!" Polnareff shouted.

Dio was being pulled closer and closer. His anger, unlike Jotaro, did not make him stronger, if anything it made him weaker and less concentrated. There were probably a million things he could have done to get out of that situation, but all he could think of at that moment was struggle uselessly.

And then, he felt his body being lifted off the ground. He himself was surprised by the surprising strength the lithe young woman held. She started spinning on herself, and with her Dio. He started being hovered higher and higher and higher and higher and at a gradually faster speed!

"Watch it!" Polnareff went prone on the ground to avoid colliding against the rope. Dio himself was stunned and at a loss for words, he was being spun around like a hammer in an Olympic hammer throwing competition.

"Bye bye." Blake stopped, and at that moment, through technique or sheer luck, the rope unwrapped itself from Dio's ankle and returned to Blake's weapon, and the sheer momentum of the spinning…it made him go speeding up the street like a screaming missile, with so much force he smashed clean through a building and still kept flying north half across the city without being slowed down even a little bit. Blake used up all her strength into throwing him as far as she could!

Polnareff stood up, looking towards the north: Dio flew so far that he couldn't even see him any more "Phew, that would have killed any normal person, but….this is Dio we're talking about, he's like a human-sized cockroach."

Blake sheathed her weapon. "We did what we could do, let's leave the rest to the others."

* * *

Dio gritted his teeth, feeling the wind hitting his back with such speed he felt like he was going to get destroyed from the sheer mid-air speed he was supposed to endure. He closed his eyes, tapping into what felt like a collection of beings: distant and near alike.

_Pitiful creatures of Grimm, rescue me!_

A large Nevermore nigh instantly swooped from above the skies, putting itself behind Dio and catching it with its huge talons. The speed and momentum made the Nevermore recoil like it had been shot at with a cannon ball.

_Skreeee!_

It slammed against a highway and broke through it, shielding Dio at the same time with its humongous body. Once it fell onto the road, battered and bruised, it died, dissolving into smoke.

Dio, wounded and bleeding, crawled out, forcing himself to stand up. He walked over to the side of the creature and grabbed its slowly dissolving head….and ripped it off with a shout, absorbing the fumes of negative energy in Nirvana's tanks. The anger and outrage he felt at that moment was like nothing he ever felt before. He screamed at the sky, channelling his fighting spirit.

His eyes gazed upon Beacon Academy, still standing tall and proud despite the rampant destruction that ravaged the city. He saw airships flying away into the horizon, full of survivors escaping the tragedy.

He had to take his revenge. He couldn't allow a humiliating experience like this slide. He folded his hands into tight fists, and started strutting towards the Academy.

He tapped into that psychic link he had with the Grimm horde.

_Destroy Beacon. Let it become a pile of rubble, spare no one!_

[To Be Continued]-->


	81. Marathon Battle Pt.2

The creatures of Grimm ran towards the Academy like wild beasts. They were so tightly packed together that, if seen from above, their white bone-like armors made them look like white grains of sand in a deep black ocean.

Soldiers and Huntsmen were positioned outside the walls of the Academy, fighting for their lives and for the lives of all others. Each minute it felt like the assault was ramping up, getting even more insanely difficult to fight back as more time passed. There were hundreds of experienced and training Huntsmen and Huntresses positioned outside the walls, but just a few minutes after Dio gave the order to the horde of Grimm at least twenty were nothing more than corpses on the ground, drowning in a pool of their own blood.

Not to mention the regular soldiers, with a near double fatality rate of Huntsmen, and Atlasian androids, with triple the fatality rate of regular soldiers.

Dio, in this chaos, made his way towards the Academy, airships were leaving left and right, with several flying Grimm going after them in an aerial chase. He was slightly disappointed by the fact that some managed to escape his wrath, but he decided those were not his focus. Even if most civilians already left and a lot of in-training Huntsmen and Huntresses were leaving at that exact moment he was sure that the professors and the veterans would remain inside the Academy and leave for last.

He grinned at the thought of it: after the slaughter he would have confronted those four little girls one by one, he wasn't going to kill them, no, his wicked mind produced an even more disturbing fate for them: transforming them into his thralls. Immortal, tortured vessels of negativity he could feed on forever.

No, not only them, the entire world deserved that fate, all of the people of this world were going to be his cattle, that's the only way he would have been able to acquire absolute power and absolute peace of mind.

At least, that's what the madman thought.

He approached a side of the wall mostly left alone by the guarding soldiers and the assailing Grimm. He smashed his foot onto the cement wall, and started walking up the wall like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Just like the good old days."

He climbed over it with a little twirl just for show, and noticed that there was no-one pointing their weapons at him, all the guards were outside.

A sneaky entrance didn't….sit well with him, but he had to learn to be more pragmatic, he learned quickly that his evil overlord antics were going to be the death of him if he allowed them to be.

The campus itself felt….desolate, empty, what was once nearly bursting with refugees was now a ghost academy.

He walked beside the fountain, walking towards the main building very, very slowly. He approached the front door, and was just about to smash it open.

And all fell silent. An unnatural silence, as if the battle ravaging outside suddenly stopped. He blinked and suddenly felt his body tense up and freeze. Then, a force that felt like a missile hitting him straight in the back made him get knocked forward, smashing through the door with his whole body.

He stood up, looking back at his assailant and bit his lower lip so hard it began bleeding. "You little bastard." he growled out and stood up, sitting inside the wide hallway. After those words, time was unfrozen. Jotaro stood at the broken entrance, hands in his pockets.

"You moved through the stopped time, your Stand's really dedicated in hoarding as many abilities as it can."

And as Dio shouted: "Enough banter, have at thee!" Nirvana leaped forward, and it and Star Ruby's fists collided once again.

Dio attempted to attack him with the other fist, but once again he was blocked. The Stands stood in the middle of the hallway, attempting to push each-other off like a couple of Sumo wrestlers.

The slits on Nirvana's wrists opened once again, and that supernatural gust of wind blew forth from within. It pushed forward with all its strength, throwing Star Ruby off balance and creating a horizontal wind-blade longer than a broadsword.

Star Ruby's fingers were nearly cut off from the power of the blade, but his instinct of survival kicked in and forced Star Ruby to move backwards. Jotaro gasped in surprise as he saw Dio himself leap forward like a pouncing lion, phasing through the wind-blade completely unharmed and with a bloodthirsty grin jumped over Star Ruby.

Dio wrapped a hand around Jotaro's neck and pushed him down onto the rubble-filled ground, grappling him and straddling his chest like a ruffian in a fistfight. Dio let out a breathy laugh and started scratching at Jotaro's face with his long and absurdly sharp fingernails, which at that moment looked more like claws. One time with his right hand, and one time with then with his left hand, in a fast rhythm. He scratched with so much force that Jotaro's head turned left and right with every hit.

"Die, die, die! You and the rest of your putrid lineage!" His fingernails, painted black, were tinged in Jotaro's blood. He kept scratching and scratching, creating horrible marks on Jotaro's face. He scratched wildly like he himself was a crazed Grimm. How could Jotaro possibly focus and control his Stand while enduring such a savage attack?

"Time to end this! Good night, JoJo!" Dio raised his right arm, and the outline of Nirvana's arm covered it like a ghostly gauntlet. The slit on its wrist opened again, and…

A sharp rapier stabbed Dio right on the forehead. His eyes shot up, as if not even feeling the object piercing his skull and just barely missing his brain. "You…You're one of those damned little girls!"

Weiss stood right in front of him. "My name is Weiss, jackass." She pushed her weapon forward even further, the blade sinking into his skull until it arrived to the hilt. Then, she kicked him in the face, pushing her sharp high heel inside his cheek and pushed him away so fast he crashed through a wall!

Jotaro instinctively raised a hand upwards, and Weiss immediately grabbed it with her free hand and pulled him up. His face was still bleeding heavily, but there was no way to close those wounds at the moment.

Dio took deep breaths while being surrounded by even more rubble now. Despite everything, he was still alive and kicking. "How….HOW DID YOU EVEN GET HERE?!" he screamed out. "THE STREETS ARE FILLED WITH GRIMM, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO GET INSIDE THE ACADEMY!"

Weiss smiled "I think you are underestimating what a Huntresses is capable of. Not that it is surprising, underestimating people seems to be your forte."

Dio ROARED in anger, and Nirvana once again started to drip into a mass of black good that covered Dio's body from head to toe. Covering his face with a round, purple helmet.

Weiss was about to get into a fighting stance, but Jotaro blocked her. "Don't. I appreciate the help, but this is my battle."

Weiss stepped back, frowning. "Whatever you say, mister Edgelord." Even after saying those words, she still retreated at full speed. Not because she did not want to help him, but because she knew that fighting him head-on at that point was a bad idea. The only reason she got such a direct hit was because Dio was too distracted with scratching Jotaro to notice her.

If they couldn't fight the dirty bastard head-on, then they would have used little dirty tricks instead while Jotaro tanked him. It wasn't the most ideal of strategies, and one Weiss agreed with personally, but at that moment there was no other way.

Jotaro ran forward, and Star Ruby rushed to hit Dio right in the head. His fist collided against the covered face, and….

Nothing happened. He didn't even flinch. With a smooth movement Dio crouched and kicked Jotaro's Stand in the stomach, and it worked.

Jotaro clutched at his stomach, it wasn't as hard-hitting as a direct punch from his Stand, but it still hurt badly. "T-That 'armor' of yours...It can hit even Stands, huh?"

Not saying a word, Dio round-house kicked Star Ruby's head, flooring it and Jotaro in one underhanded swoop.

Jotaro touched his nose: it was bleeding, a lot.

Then, Dio turned around and started running away without saying anything at all, stomping through the dark, unlit hallway of the academy.

Jotaro stood up and started running after him at full speed, wiping his bloody nose on the sleeve of his uniform. "Who the hell turned off the lights….?" he muttered, but the 'why' now didn't exactly matter, what did matter was the fact that Dio's 'Stand Armor' blended in disturbingly well with the unlit hallway.

As he turned around the corner, Jotaro's hip was suddenly cut by an invisible force. He groaned in pain, but still kept going forward. Without any source of light the wind-blades were completely invisible, and Dio was definitely using that at his advantage. But just where was Dio planning to go?

As he turned around once more, and got the other side of his hip cut by another invisible wind blade, he saw that the only way forward were the stairs that went up and up, and he saw the outline of a dark figure running up the stairs just out of his sight.

"Of course..." he muttered, suddenly realizing it. "He's going to the Headmaster's office to destroy the CCT Tower..." It was just a wild guess on his part, but that's what it most looked like at that moment. It made the most sense, if he knew what the CCT Tower was. If global communications were disrupted, the amount of negativity generated would have sustained him a good deal.

But no matter what he was attempting to do, he had to stop him! Jotaro could feel it in his chest, the destiny, the smell of the final fight was finally upon him.

And the place where it all began, Beacon Academy, was the place where all of it would end.

Jotaro smirked, adrenaline pumping through him like it was the only thing sustaining his wounded body. "How poetic."

[To Be Continued]-->


	82. Knocking on Death's Door

Jotaro's body was covered in sweat and blood, yet the adrenaline in his body pushed him farther and faster. He ran up the stairs continuously, getting slashed over and over by Dio's invisible wind-blades, but he didn't stop, he didn't even slow down. He bit his lips and just kept on running.

Every hallway, every turn, every single step of the staircase was like walking through a torture chamber. Jotaro's blood covered the walls, and yet he kept going, just by inches avoiding mortal wounds, as if fate itself was letting him not die.

His breathing slowed down, painfully close to a halt. Was he even going the right way any more? He couldn't tell, at certain points it felt like he was being tricked and was running in circles.

Until, there it was, as if not even a moment passed he found himself in the hallway that preceded the Headmaster's office. He rested his bleeding shoulder onto the wall, taking long, deep breaths. That's when he saw him, hidden in the darkness: Dio stood in front of the closed door of the office, covered in that black flexible armor. After a few seconds he looked over at Jotaro, as if just then noticing him. Jotaro couldn't see his expression, but he was sure he was grinning under that helmet and laughing at his pain.

It was like Dio didn't care about his presence at all. He grabbed the edge of the door and casually ripped it off its hinges, walking inside.

"You'll regret...not finishing me off right now, you... bondage wearing dipshit." Jotaro thought of several insults he could throw at him, but by far this felt the most appropriate for the moment. He held onto the wounds on his right arm, limping his way inside the room.

Dio sat up casually on top of the headmaster's desk, looking over at Jotaro, as if amused. His Stand Armor melted down, and reformed right in front of him in Nirvana.

"Look at you, a pathetic bug cowering in pain and fear in front of a living god. What do you hope to accomplish? Flail your arms and hope a solid punch cracks my bad leg? Sorry, Jotaro..." Dio showed off a toothy, evil grin. "I am not going to allow something like that t happen again."

"...Why did you come here?" Jotaro asked, creating a streak of blood with every step forward he made.

"I just..." he spun around, looking over at the large window behind the desk while posing melodramatically, "Can't a god enjoy the view of death and misery from above?"

"What...about the CCT?"

Dio's head leaned backwards, looking at Jotaro upside-down, squinting in suspicion. "What the hell is a CCT? Are you trying to confuse me again, JoJo?"

Did he seriously not know? Jotaro instinctively took a sigh of relief, but the fact he wasn't there for the CCT didn't make his situation any better, it just made it not any worse. "Why are you here then?"

"Honestly, it's a bit annoying. I thought you'd be dead by now, and yet despite all your wounds you still get up and fight, that's what I hate the most about you Joestars. I guess even a lower entity like you can be a royal pain in the ass by just refusing to die. But no matter, I will end it here, and paint the walls of this so called 'Headmaster's office' with your blood!"

He turned around and leaped forward. Nirvana appeared in front of him and mimicked its movements, pulling one arm back.

Jotaro saw Dio getting closer and closer. It was a fast, but easily avoidable attack...Or at least it would have been, if his body wasn't more preoccupied with bleeding out rather than moving. He couldn't move, he just stood there like a sitting duck waiting for the inevitable buckshot to hit it.

_Is this where it all ends?_ He thought. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl, not because of any ability or Stand Power, it was something...different.

Jotaro saw his whole life flash before his eyes: His youth, his mother, his days as a mostly normal delinquent, memories about the heavy duty imposed on him by his lineage to defeat Dio, the trials and perils to get to Egypt, all the friends he made along the way and the sacrifices that were made. Then, all of these new memories: Team RWBY, Remnant, all the different factions they had to fight off, everything that they learned.

Dio's fist inched ever closer towards him: an attack that would surely pulverize his bones and kill his wounded body if it had a direct hit.

_Was everything I did...pointless then_

Jotaro closed his eyes, as if accepting his fate.

_I don't want...to die alone._

He kept waiting.

But the fist didn't come. He heard the sound of glass breaking into many tiny pieces, and he suddenly opened his eyes as he heard a familiar scream. It was a woman's voice, loud and burning with rage.

He was face-to-face with a grinning Dio who was moments away from hitting him. He looked past his shoulders and noticed that something long and green seemed to slither in from the window behind the desk, and on top of the green figure a tall, golden woman stood.

Jotaro thought he was hallucinating from all the blood he was losing. "Y...Yang...Hi...erophant..?"

Dio let out a 'huh?' and suddenly stopped and turned around, showing Jotaro his back, equally as surprised and baffled as Jotaro at the sight: "You too?! How did you even get up here?!"

Kakyoin's voice came out of Hierophant, reverberating like he was talking through a speaker: "You shouldn't underestimate what a long-range Stand can do." By those words Jotaro and Dio could only assume that Hierophant Green managed to take itself and Yang onto the office like an elevator.

Yang's expression was fierce and her hair looked like they were set ablaze. "You will pay one hundred times..." she jumped forward, off of Hierophant's Green back, and landed on the ground, "For everything you did to my friends!"

Yang shot the ground and propelled herself towards Dio, leaving holes on the floor of the office.

As Yang screamed in rage, Nirvana's right arm turned into a black goo that covered silver-haired Dio's hand and solidified into a smooth black glove that went up to his shoulder. He gritted his teeth and raised the armored hand up.

Yang was going too fast to change the course of her attack at that moment, her gauntlet-clad fist punched his right forearm, doing no visible damage whatsoever.

And yet, when Jotaro saw her with that reckless and fiery expression, something awoke in him. A powerful surge of hidden energy ran through his body, and when he saw Dio so pridefully, and yet so stupidly showing off his back to him, as if he thought that even if he left Jotaro an opening, he wouldn't have had the strength to attack him.

And he was just about to prove him wrong. Star Ruby, beaten and bleeding, jumped out of Jotaro's body and punched Dio right on the spine with a single, powerful attack.

Dio grunted in pain and his balance was thrown off! His base instinct of survival told him to turn around to Jotaro, but he knew that would have left him open to an attack, but if he kept facing forward and tried blocking again, he would have been vulnerable to another attack from behind. In the span of those few moments he overthought it so much that he made the worst possible decision: doing nothing.

They didn't let this chance fly by.

They didn't plan it, they didn't even realize it in the spur of battle, but Yang and Jotaro's movements were perfectly synchronized. They yelled out the same thing at the same time:

"ORA!"

And they let out a sound-breaking powerful coordinated couple of punches. One on the chest by Yang, and one on the back by Jotaro. On the same spot, but on opposite ends, if Dio wasn't between them then their fists would have bumped together.

Dio felt like his chest was being compressed by a trash compactor. He could feel his bones crunching and barely resisting against the coordinated attack. He screamed out in pain and rage, flailing his arms around randomly in rage

Yang ducked under his flailing arms and swooshed around him, keeping her head low and suddenly grabbing and lifting up Jotaro by the waist.

It took him a second to realize he was being carried princess styled while Yang bolted towards the door. He was so confused all he could let out was a wordless sound: "A..Aah...?"

"You're too wounded, I'm going to make you retreat whether you like it or not!" Yang shouted.

_What an aggressive way to tell me that you're here to rescue me_.

"I am NOT letting you out this easily!" Dio shouted, and Nirvana launched itself forward. He was just about to hit them, but he was stopped when a large Emerald Cannon bullet hit him in the leg, penetrating the flesh and pinning him on the ground.

"Gaah?!" Dio glared at Hierophant, who, despite being a rather inexpressive Stand, looked rather proud in itself.

Kakyoin let out a laugh through his Stand "Forgot I was here, did you?" Hierophant's head turned towards the other two, and while Kakyoin couldn't see them, he could definetly hear them run away, "I shall bid you goodbye as well, for now." Then, after those words, it suddenly jumped down the window and was de-summoned.

Dio grabbed the blood covered Emerald Cannon bullet and pulled it, gritting his teeth and screaming when he managed to pull out the huge chunk of crystallized energy.

"ENOUGH!" he screamed out in anger and frustration beyond belief. "NIRVANA!"

Nirvana appeared in front of him, hands wrapped together and glowing. "TIME WILL NOW STOP!"

The energy in Nirvana's hands was released, and everything stopped. Only Jotaro could see what was happening, but his carrier, Yang, was frozen in time as anything else. He himself felt so tired he couldn't move an inch in stopped time.

Dio looked around, he felt like even in this state he would not have been able to keep the stopped time active for long. Possibly because since his Stand wasn't focused on one single ability, he couldn't control it as well as he used to. "I have to say, this does not feel as good as it used to...Haha….HAHAHA!"

After laughing maniacally, Dio ran towards Yang and Jotaro with murderous intent in his eyes, closing the distance before five seconds passed and time returned to normal.

In Yang's perspective, it was like Dio had teleported behind her instantly. She couldn't counterattack while carrying JoJo, so her only choice was to run. Run like she never ran in her life.

She was so close to the exit, and yet she could feel the smell of death coming from behind her any minute. She closed her eyes and launched herself towards the closed door, pushing her speed to the limit.

And then, it opened up from the other side.

A figure they would never think would join the fray stood in the hallway and calmly stepped in. Short silver hair, small round glasses, and that oh so familiar cane in his hands.

Dio was so stunned by his entrance that he stopped running after them, and maybe Yang would have too, if she hadn't closed her eyes and blindly ran forward.

Ozpin calmly dodged sideways and allowed Yang and Jotaro to pass by and run down the hallway. He didn't particularly care that they didn't see him, he just kept his eyes locked on Dio. His new appearance, silver hair, purple veins, pale skin...they weren't new to him.

"I have had enough." He stated, lifting his cane up. "I will not let any of my students suffer by your hand any longer."

[To Be Continued]-->


	83. Keep Getting Back Up

Ozpin looked back at the hallway for just a second, indeed those two went so back he couldn't even see them in the light-less hallways. He would've chuckled at Yang's brashness and at the fact she didn't even notice him, while, if his expression told him anything, Jotaro definitely did. But this was no such time. He faced his opponent cane at the ready.

"So you're the 'Headmaster' of this place, huh?" Dio said with spite. "A little someone told me all about you, Ozpin." He showed Ozpin a toothy grin, slowly approaching him.

Ozpin stood still, unflinching and unmoving. "I see, so you really do work for her, I had suspected thus."

"That's where you're wrong. Maybe I faked helping her while she and her little group nursed me back to health when I came in this world….but not any more. That witch, she's just like me, she just saw me as a pawn to use until I lost all purpose, and then would have gleefully discarded me." He stated, as if admitting to doing exactly that himself was something to be proud of "Plus, I'm the one destined to rule above all other beings in this world and the next, I don't want or need to be someone's right hand man."

"The one who stole the Fall Maiden's powers, did you kill them too?"

"Yes, I guess you should know that before your death. Don't get me wrong, I don't care for any Maidens of sorts, that woman was just an easy, weak obstacle to throw in the trash after my Stand's true awakening."

Ozpin pushed up his glasses, and the two men started circling each-other, slowly.

"An old man with a walking stick dares fight a god. Is that bravery or simple foolhardiness?" Dio stated, tilting his head with a smile as smug as ever. "The answer should be obvious, right?"

"If Salem truly did tell you as much as you claim, then you would know there is more to these old bones that meets the eye."

"Then show me."

They stopped at the same time, and after a stare-down that lasted fifteen seconds, they started attacking each-other: Ozpin jumped forward and swung his cane around as if it was a baton with lightning fast speed.

Dio barely managed to block the attacks with his open palms, and even then he grunted when the tip of the cane his his hands. He rolled around Ozpin and crouched down, attempting to kick his legs and trip him over.

However, Ozpin jumped over his legs and proceeded to smash the cane on top of his head, causing a splatter of blood to come out of the wound and hit the ground. A few of his silver hair got entangled around the cane, and when he pulled back they were ripped off his scalp. Dio let out an inhuman roar and reached out his arm, grabbing Ozpin's wrist and throwing him above himself, and then threw the Headmaster behind himself, effectively suplexing him.

But Ozpin's retaliation was instant, he reached out behind himself mid-suplex and locked Dio's waist with the cane and then proceeded to suplex  _him_  instead!

Dio clutched at his head, bleeding black ooze. "This...IS NOTHING!" He jumped back, still with as much energy as before, and they kept trading hits.

* * *

"Aah...Aah..." Yang finally opened her eyes and saw she was in one of the unlit hallways of the school. She quickly settled Jotaro against one of the walls, making him sit down and making sure he was as comfortable as possible...Well, as comfortable as he could be against a concrete wall. "Well...we did it, I don't know how but we did it. Sure wish Josuke was here to heal you..."

He was breathing heavily, but Yang was thankful he was breathing at all. The wounds he suffered were heavy, and unlike Dio he couldn't just regenerate them and shrug them off. Despite it all, he still attempted to move, and Yang immediately blocked him. "Calm down and take a rest, you can't fight right now."

"I….Need to fight….I….Need to end this." He muttered and again started standing up, but Yang quickly placed a hand on his shoulder and forcefully pushed him back.

"No, you stay here." She ordered, and stared at him for a few seconds. After making sure he would not try again to stand up, she backed away and sighed.

"Why didn't he follow us? And why do I feel like...someone else was there while I ran away?"

"Oz...pin. Pro...Professor Ozpin entered his office."

"O-Ozpin?!" Yang couldn't help but shout, before she quickly covered her mouth, and then started to speak in a whisper. "Really? Are you sure you didn't just hallucinate him?"

Jotaro slowly nodded.

"Why would he bother? He was safe in the bunker, was he? Why did he….Well, I don't think it matters 'why' right now, but he just did." Yang started pacing back and forth in front of Jotaro, thinking. "If only...argh, damn it. If Ozpin is fighting him, he doesn't stand a chance, that Dio guy's a damn monster, inside and out. Even after I went all out with my attack he barely was affected. It's just...he's too powerful, nothing we have can come close on finishing him off. If this keeps up, this fight will go on until all of our energies are exhausted."

The two were left in silence...well, almost, they could distinctly hear the sounds of struggle and fighting coming from where they came. They were….worrying, of course, but they also sparked an idea in Yang's mind.

"This may sound crazy, but...if he just has too much power, how about we simply...rob him of his source of power?"

Jotaro looked up, "And...do you know where this 'source' would be?"

"Well, it's that black smoke thing that comes out from people affected by negative emotions, right? But most of the city already has been evacuated, so he can't power himself up any further, at least for now..."

"N...No. Not….what I meant." Jotaro started, his erratic breathing slowly stabilizing. "In order for us to rob him of that power, he has to store it somewhere, right? Where….Where could that be?"

Yang pinched her chin with her thumb and index finger. "Could it be…." She looked up and stared Jotaro eye-to-eye. "Wait….I get it, they have to be those oxygen tanks on the Stand's back, right? That's where he stores the accumulated smoke!"

He smiled, "And if we take those away…."

"He'll be left totally vulnerable!" Yang suddenly grabbed her Scroll and started dialling a number. "And I think I know just who can do something like that." She started suddenly walking down the hallway, placing the Scroll next to her ear. She looked back at Jotaro, looking worried, "Your wounds are going to heal themselves as long as you don't exert yourself. Don't try to fight, okay?"

After those words, she started running towards the Headmaster's office, and started speaking softly at the Scroll: "Hey, sis?"

After that, she was too far away for Jotaro to hear the rest of the conversation.

Jotaro smirked, all by himself. "Can't promise that."

* * *

"Ah...Aah..." Dio adjusted himself, "I hate to admit it, but you're much stronger than I expected..."

Ozpin clutched at his stomach, equally, if not more as wounded as his opponent. He remained silent, glaring daggers at the silver-haired megalomaniac.

Dio ducked and swung his arms at ankle's height for seemingly no reason, before rising back up in a smooth motion and widening his stance

"But it ends now! NIRVANA! TIME WILL NOW STOOOooo." His voice slowed down and his words dragged on. In fact, everything around them seemed to slow down. Everything but Ozpin. At first, it would seem like time had stopped, but that was, in itself, incorrect. The same mechanics of stopping time didn't apply, it was more like time distorted around him. Whether he was moving so fast that everything around him seemed slowed, or that he was going at a normal speed while the others were slowed down didn't really matter.

What did matter is that such a technical difference didn't, and could not, allow Dio to counter as he could with time stops.

Ozpin struck him a hundred times with his cane in what felt like a moment's time, smashing the end of it on his chest, more like he was using a fencing blade rather than a blunt weapon. Dio saw and felt every single one of those hits, and when the distortion of time ended he smashed against the desk, breaking it in half.

And yet, he still stood up. Dio shot him a grin, "Knock me down but I will still keep getting back up. How will you get back up now, though?"

Ozpin wasn't sure of what he was talking about...before he felt an acute and sharp pain on his ankles. He looked down at the ground, and in that moment, in a twist of irony, the light of the sun started shining brighter inside the room. It was just then he saw the wind-blades near his ankles, they had chipped away at his Aura while he was attacking. Now the high-powered wind was starting to cut through his ankles.

"Gah!" He jumped back, but it was way too late to dodge at that point. His ankles were oozing blood, and his muscles were cut. He lost all balance and fell with his back on the ground.

Dio, opportunistic as ever, ran forward at top speed and tried slamming his fist down to the Headmaster with a bloodthirsty grin.

Ozpin lifted his cane and blocked, barely, the attack, but the force of the attack smacked his weapon away from him, leaving him totally defenceless. Dio stepped on his stomach, leaving him gasping for air, then he bent down and grabbed the cane, turning it around and inspecting it.

He laughed to himself, and then pointed the end of the cane towards Ozpin's chest. He looked down at his own weapon, stolen and turned at him. This wasn't his first time he was close to death, and yet this time he felt truly...bitter, he felt weak and powerless, like he utterly failed, both himself and his students.

A voice echoed in the hallway outside, along with the sounds of heavy footsteps: "Professor! I'm coming to help!"

Dio grinned at Ozpin's horrified reaction at Yang's voice. "See you next life, Ozpin." And then, he thrust the cane forward.

Ozpin saw the cane create a hole in his chest, entering inside the wound and destroying the ribcage, then he felt the fragments of bone stabbing his insides like daggers. When he felt the cane smash through his heart, his head leaned back.

The last thing Ozpin saw was the horrified expression of Yang Xiao Long, standing in the doorway.

Dio left the cane impaled on its owner's chest, and looked in amusement at the blood-spattered corpse of his opponent. Then he stared at Yang, licking his own blood covered hand without breaking eye-contact.

The shock quickly turned to pure, unrestrained anger. She snarled something at him and then charged forward with a body that looked like it was covered in flames.

Dio laughed, and then summoned his Stand. "Give it your best shot, little girl. Your anger only fuels me!"

Unnoticed by them, however, someone else was in the room, well, it would be more accurate to say that she was right outside of it. Standing on the edge of the window, kneeled down and looking through her scope, though she couldn't see much through the tears running down from his eyes. She had arrived at the worst time possible, and saw Ozpin's death without being able to do anything about it. Ruby's hands were shaking and she felt like she could pass and go splat on the ground below her at any moment.

The sight of such a great and inspiring authority figure getting murdered right in front of her eyes caused her despair beyond words.

She grabbed the ammo clip and ripped it off forcefully from Crescent Rose, and then equally as forcefully inserted a different clip, with an image of a bullet passing through a chest-plated armor drawn on the sides.

She hovered a trembling finger over the trigger.

"Can't...I...Can't...Lose…Anyone…."

[To Be Continued]-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you feel it in the air? The ending is almost here!


	84. Death of Nirvana

Dio walked over the lifeless corpse of the one who was formerly the headmaster, crushing his bones with as much disrespect as he could muster. Nirvana quickly blocked Yang's punch by grabbing her wrist with so much force it stopped her charge right in her tracks.

She gasped in pain as Nirvana pushed forward, as if attempting to snap her arm, then she went to her knees. Attempting to push back she let out an angered growl, however Nirvana didn't move an inch, but neither did she, they were at a complete stalemate.

"Look at your dear leader, look at his desecrated and puny old body, do you think you, a greenhorn fit for nothing more than being cannon fodder, can fight me? Maybe it's time for you weaklings should just give up, or else you'll end up sacrificing everything in a futile battle."

"Sacrifices….sacrifices….sacrifices this, sacrifices that! I'm done with that word!" Yang's eyes flared up and started to exert even more strength, she managed to to put one foot on the ground as she pushed upward. Nirvana's grab started to falter slightly. "Ever since we've been thrown into this mess, I've been hearing constantly about these sacrifices, sacrifices made by awful, power-hungry  **creatures**  like you to reach their ambitions: The Silver Records, that Steele guy, and finally you. You all sacrificed the innocent for your goals. Well you know what I say to you and these sacrifices?!"

With every word she spoke Yang's hair began glowing more and more brightly, till it looked more like a mane of pure energy, and then proceeded to punch Nirvana in the face with the speed and destructive power of a cannon ball. The Stand and its user's head snapped back in unison, and Yang was freed from their grasp. "G-Gah!" Dio exclaimed, surprised by her sudden surge in power.

Yang rusher forward and started beating the absolute hell out of Dio: punching him in the gut, decking him in the face with an explosive gauntlet shot, doing repeated punches to his chest, and even grabbed his silver colored hair, pulled down his head and smashed her knee onto his face.

"I'VE. HAD. ENOUGH!"

Dio staggered backwards, attempting to recover from the series of hits as soon as possible, with the back against the wall, His nose began bleeding black blood, and then wiped it away with the back of his hand, giving Yang the evil eye.

He then rushed towards her, screaming and charging her like a maddened bull and decked Yang in the face. She didn't even flinch. Not because it didn't damage her Aura, because it did, but because she was so utterly enraged that her body simply tanked it.

Yang punched the ground and bullet-jumped in the air, and then attempted to axe-kick him in the head while in mid-air! However, Dio grabbed her leg and forcibly brought her down to the ground, then started to drag her along the pavement, smacking her from side to side while screaming one of his many usual megalomaniac spiels. Yang's yellow-tinted aura started flickering and faltering, until Dio lifted her entire body above his head and smashed her on the ground.

She rolled backwards and stopped only when her body was barely a few feet away from Ozpin's corpse.

The golden-haired warrior tried to lift herself up with her elbows, groaning in pain and pure unfiltered anger.

Dio and Nirvana's eyes started to glow menacingly, staring at her with an emotionless expression. Yang's eyes were forcibly locked with his, no matter how hard she tried she couldn't move her head away. He kept approaching her, staring and staring.

Her vision started to darken, as if covered by a darkened fog, and then she realized that the fog was coming out of her mouth, her own anger and hatred towards him…..it was all coming out in the shape of that dark fog.

With every second that passed, it felt like her soul was being stolen, piece by piece from her, escaping from her mouth. It felt even worse than being on the verge of death, it was more like she was losing herself.

When her eyes went blank, that's when it happened.

Ruby, positioned right outside the window, couldn't bear the sight any longer, and screamed and pressed the trigger. "DON'T TOUCH MY SISTER!"

The glow in his eyes faded, and Yang was left on the ground, stunned but safe. "What now?!" He attempted to turn towards the window, not even noticing the bullet flying straight towards his Stand.

And it was no regular bullet at all. It spun around much more quickly than a regular bullet and was shaped like a drill, it was almost as thick as a bottle cap and as long as Dio's index finger. It flew and flew, slicing the wind around it, until it collided against one of Nirvana's oxygen tanks.

It dug into the metal-like substance and began spinning even more violently, and the oxygen tank started spinning with it, spinning around the bullet and being torn to shreds, leaking black, negative fumes.

Dio's eyes shot wide open. He couldn't believe it, as the fumes left his Stand's body he felt….weaker. Suddenly, wounds started spontaneously popping up on his body: Bruises, burns, cuts. "T-They're….It can't be….They're opening back up again?!"

It didn't take long till the oxygen tank was forcibly ripped off of Nirvana's body, the tank shattered on the ground and the black fumes contained within flew out of the window, and by the size of the cloud it created, that tank contained way more negativity than at first it would seem. Dio screamed in agony, as if a limb was hacked off his body. His skin began turning bore charred and cracked as his 'healed' wounds began to appear once again.

"M-My power….what the hell's happening?!"

Another bullet hit the second tank and the same thing happened. As the fumes of negativity was forcibly taken off of Nirvana, Dio's body quickly got covered in hideous burn scars, spreading like ink stains on his body.

His screams went up to high heavens.

Nirvana grimaced in anger and pain and started flickering in and out of existance, as if the only thing that was keeping it up was pure force of will.

"It's over!" Ruby shouted.

Yang stood up, grinning. "Your reign of terror is over, Dio."

Dio looked down at the ground, arms hanging limply on his sides. "Over…?" He started laughing, gripping at the side of his head with one hand. "Over?! OVER?! This won't be over till I say so! So what I can't store the negativity any more?! I can still control it!"

He raised his arms to the ceiling, and the ground started shaking violently, like it was affected by an earthquake.

"STOP!" Yang shouted and rushed forward to attack and stop whatever he was doing. As soon as she got close to him Dio screamed, and a powerful shockwave was released around his body. It was powerful enough to shake the entire room and send Yang rolling on the ground, and almost make Ruby fall off the window's edge.

"I will accumulate every little fume of negativity that still lingers this damned city and blot out the sun with it. Then, I will solidify it and let it all come crashing down, the city will be destroyed by the falling sky itself!"

He let out a shrill laughter, and the tremors became even more powerful.

* * *

Blake slashed off a charging Grimm's head. She, Weiss, Polnareff and Kakyoin were fending off Grimm at the school's gate along with the remaining Soldiers.

Stern faced, they were giving it their all to fight back against the horde, they still were fighting when the ground started to shake.

"Woah woah woah! Hey, what's happening?!" Polnareff shouted.

"What...LOOK, LOOK!" One of the soldiers looked up and pointed their finger to the sky.

They all did so, and what they saw was utterly terrifying: a huge storm of black smoke started rising from the highest point of Beacon Academy, covering the sky, less like clouds covering the sky and more like tar covering water.

It was spreading quickly, covering the sun and spreading all throughout Vale's sky, attempting to cover it like a dome. They had already seen storms of that black smoke before during their fight with Dio, but none of those were nearly as massive as the one they were seeing at that moment.

And what was even more preoccupying is what they saw right in front of them.

The Grimm were retreating.

The bestial creatures who they thought acted only on primordial instinct were running away from something, something they never thought possible.

Polnareff let out an awkward laugh "I-I think we might be a little bit screwed."

Kakyoin quipped back: "Only a little bit?"

* * *

"Haah….Haah...I don't care if it kills me as well, I will bring down this whole city if I can have my revenge!"

While Yang attempted to stand up despite the tremors, Ruby in panic tried reloading Crescent Rose, but the moment she pulled out a new magazine it slipped from her hand and fell way below. "No no no no no no!" She grasped at her and groaned in frustration.

"I won't wait any longer, it'll only take a few seconds for me to do this!" He grinned and laughed like a lunatic while keeping his arms up in the air and-

The door suddenly slammed open, and all eyes were turned towards it.

Standing in the doorway, Jotaro Kujo was gasping and breathing heavily while bleeding waterfalls, far more than any normal person could take.

He rushed towards Dio like a charging Football player, grabbed his waist and tackled him, running while grabbing him along and letting out a visible blood trail behind him. It all happened so quickly they just didn't know how to react. He didn't stop at just grabbing Dio up however, he kept running, running towards the window.

"GAH?! LET GO OF ME! LET GO!" he screamed like a spoiled child, struggling uselessly against his grasp. Now he had lost all of his physical power, he was just a wounded, burnt mess with no physical strength left.

It wasn't till he was right in front of the window that his intentions was clear to the others, and even for Ruby, who was right outside the window, it was far too late to stop him.

While still holding onto Dio, he jumped towards the open window.

And they both began falling, down and down and down and down and down.

"J-JOJO, YOU FOOL! WE'LL BOTH DIE IF YOU DO THIS, YOU WON'T SURVIVE THE FALL!" he screamed out, but there was no longer any pleading he could do.

Their fates were already written down from the moment he jumped.

When they collided against the asphalt ground, both of them, still somehow breathing, were laying face-down. Jotaro, twitching and leaking tears of pure pain, went to his knees, and looked down at Dio's body, who laid on the ground, gasping heavily and looking more like a bunt corpse than a truly alive being.

"Jo….Jo…."

As if fate itself decided to smite him, a piece of the crumbling wall that surrounded the school fell back, turning him into a splatter of black blood on the ground.

Jotaro still kept looking at the same spot.

…

…

…

Then, something truly unexpected happened, a figure phased through the rubble: a golden humanoid figure, with long hair. The figure looked at his hands, and started laughing "Haha….hahaha….HAHAHA! Of course I can't die, I am immortal, supreme!" Dio's voice echoed in the area, but it was like nobody could hear him.

Jotaro still kept looking at the same spot.

Dio started swinging his arms towards Jotaro while laughing, punching and scratching. But his laughs quickly stopped when his hands phased right through his body.

Jotaro still kept looking at the same spot.

"No….no...This….I am….dead?" He look at his glowing arms full of disbelief. "I am...a spirit?"

Dio then saw a purple chain wrapping around his neck, then his arms, then his legs. They burned like hot irons, and when he turned around to meet his attacker, he saw a truly terrifying thing.

A Grimm, a huge, humanoid Grimm with a ox's face and two gigantic, curly horns, it held the chains in its hands, and started dragging him, making Dio scream, for the first time, in pure terror.

He felt powerless, he felt completely defenceless as he skid across the ground, dragged towards the Grimm. A swirling purple portal opened behind the non-physical Grimm. And again, nobody else seemed to see what was happening.

Jotaro still kept looking at the same exact spot.

He reached out his arm, gasping and attempting to break free.

Then, a voice echoed from the inside of the portal: "Oh, I was waiting for this moment. Did you think a traitor like you could dare ruin my plans and get away with it?" The woman's voice was cold, unsympathetic, almost gleefully sadistic.

"G-Gah..no...no...You can't do this to me!"

"Death alone is not a sufficient punishment for all that you've done. My Torturers will have a fun time with you, torturing your soul over and over for the rest of eternity. That is the only appropriate punishment."

The Torturer dragged him closer and closer to the Portal, while he begged and screamed for help, but help did not come, nor it could come.

His soul swirled around the portal, his arms still reaching out for the outside.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Then the portal closed, and nothing remained.

The sky, plagued with darkness, cleared up, and benevolent sunshine started pouring over the empty city. Not even the Grimm remained.

During all that, Team RWBY, Polnareff, and Kakyoin, approached Jotaro. They, of course, did not see anything that transpired with the soul of Dio.

"We've...won?" Ruby asked tentatively.

"We've won. It's finally over." Blake said.

"We did it!" Polnareff shouted, "He killed that bastard again! He really did it, the madman!"

"Hehe, again. When this is all over with, you both have to tell me how it ended last time." Kakyoin stated, crossing his arms.

And finally, for once in a long while, they all smiled and cheered at the same time.

"Hey, hey, Jotaro!" Yang started running towards his crouched form, smiling, "Jotaro, we did it! Why are you not cheering with us? Jotaro!"

As she got closer, however, something odd began making itself more apparent, and dark thoughts started swirling in hear head. "Jotaro! Jotaro!"

Jotaro's body slumped forward, lifeless.

"Jo...taro?" Yang muttered, slowing down to a crawl. They all looked on at him with a horrified expression.

Jotaro Kujo has died.

[To Be Continued]-->


	85. Thanks and Goodbyes [Ending]

"This...but...why…?" Yang collapsed to her knees, shaking as she saw the corpse of her former partner in arms. She slowly reached out his hand towards his face. His expression was peaceful, one of satisfaction, a remorseless death. At that sight, tears started streaming down her face.

And not only on hers, but on every single one of her companions. Some, like Ruby, exploded into tears and gross sobs as they quickly ran over towards his body. Others, like Kakyoin and Weiss, stood still, covering their faces as if trying to instinctively hide the tears.

"G...God damn it all to hell!" Polnareff punched the asphalt ground while kneeling beside Jotaro's corpse. Multiple times they tried reading his pulse or checking for breath. Nothing. All biological functions had stopped.

"C-Come on, get up now..." Ruby gently shook him, giving the body a wry, fake smile. "We...haven't even figured out. You need to….see your mom again."

Her own words made her tears flow even faster. She wiped her wet eyes on her sleeve, sniffing. "Why...did it have to end like this?"

Everything felt so still, so silent after that. Now the Grimms were gone from the city, but so was everyone else, whether they managed to escape the city, were still in the bunker, or died outside….Vale truly felt like a ghost city. And in that moment more so than ever before.

They didn't know how long they stood around there, as if waiting for something to change, but nothing did, nothing changed.

Well, except for one thing. A voice, a voice they had all heard before, but hadn't for a long time.

"What a sob fest, cheer up a little!" The voice was unusually jolly, unnervingly so. When they looked up to look at the source, they saw a familiar figure: A hooded man, sporting the cloak of the Silver Records.

But it was obvious he wasn't a normal person, his lack of shadow in broad daylight proving it. He was the same man they had encountered just after Josuke dissapeared.

Ruby frowned, hand reaching down to her weapon instinctively "You again..."

"Hey, hey, hey. Seems like I came right at the right time." The hooded man looked down at the corpse, grinning from ear to ear.

"What the hell….do you mean?" Yang stared upwards, her eyes flaring into an unnatural red. The tears seemed like they just wouldn't stop streaming down her face.

"Oh honey stop, save up those tears for later." He giggled like a jester or an inappropriate trickster

Those words, that tone….it got Yang madder than a bull seeing the red flag of a Matador, like that man could say just the right words to piss her off. She slowly stood up...And rushed forward, attempting to land a punch at his face. Absolutely no-one attempted to stop her.

The hit seemed like it would connect for a moment, before a portal of swirling blue light suddenly swallowed the 'man', and he appeared a few steps back, dodging the attack completely.

"Whoopsie, you shouldn't have done that, you could have ruined your only chance of seeing your hyper-muscular boyfriend again."

"Who the hell are you?!" Polnareff stood up, pointing and glaring daggers at the man while trying to wipe away his remaining tears. "How is it that you appear only when bad things happen?"

He cleared his voice and adjusted the robe, and stepped back again in case Yang attempted to punch him again. He pressed a hand on his chest and while grinning started to introduce himself: "I am Wonderful World, but you can simply call me Wonder, or World, whatever you prefer."

Kakyoin attempted desperately to not look at Jotaro's body, or even glance at it. Out of sight out of mind, at least for that moment. "From….that name and appearance alone, it seems you're not just a simple human being, are you?"

"Correct. I'm a Stand, well, was a Stand. In fact, you might say I'm the one responsible for every single thing that happened to you all. You already met my master, did you?"

"So you're saying you're The Door's Stand?" Yang said, in a tone that clearly showed she did not believe a word of it, "That makes no sense, why are you talking as if you're a different entity entirely?"

"I am, simple as that. My master was….a strange man, he possessed two souls within his body. In fact, I am not just a Stand, I am the second soul that resided within him since birth. It's a looong story."

"I'm not following, what are you trying to say?" Blake clearly looked nervous, very, very, very nervous, only barely holding on to that little bit of patience she had.

"Sssh, I'm getting there. Anyhoo, to make the short and dirty of it, the man you called 'The Door' was born on Earth, the world of those three weirdos. He always lived a lonely life, he grew weary of the world, and wanted to live in another, more interesting and lively world, and without even realizing it, activated me, summoning himself to another world entirely: this one."

"Hold up." Ruby stopped him and walked over to him, "You've been talking all this time, but something's been bothering me, why are you referring to The Door as if he's no longer here?"

"Oh, you didn't hear the news?" He grinned, knowing full well they couldn't have known, "He's dead."

A dread-filled silence filled the nearly empty campus once again, as they stared at the Stand in disbelief.

"How-No, I don't believe it, you're spouting nonsense." Yang pointed an accusatory finger at Wonder "That's just not possible, if he really is dead, then you wouldn't be here right now."

"I'm a Stand of many abilities, you know." Wonder smiled, circling the group while staring off into the blue sky, "I have a...unique ability to detach myself from my Master and take on a disguise, and that's what I did while the horrible act was done. I was spying on the Silver Records before you brutes came and started breaking stuff. And now that my Master is dead I'm doomed to wander in this form, I am a being that should not exist." He sounded so carefree about it, like those things didn't concern him at all.

Polnareff approached him, assuming a threatening position. "Hey, we didn't ask for your life story, buddy. Cut to the chase, before I cut you to damn pieces."

Wonder smiled. "No no no, don't do that. Really, for your own good rather than mine, I'm just trying to help you all, and..." He looked down at his corpse, "Him, of course. If he does not survive, then your purposes here won't be fulfilled, and I can't leave any threads unsolved, y'know?"

The stand raised his hands up towards the group to preventively stop them as they were about to ask questions. "Before anything else, have you heard of a little fun rule? No Stand, no matter how powerful, can bring the dead back to life, at least not how exactly as they were."

"If...Even Crazy Diamond couldn't do it, I doubt anything can." Ruby muttered to herself, staring at the ground and just...thinking, thinking about how much these people that just suddenly barged in her life changed her, and her entire Team. She couldn't begin to guess if their presence was a blessing or a curse.

"That rule...is unfortunately true. No Stand power can cheat the laws of reality to that level, it's just how it is. But…." Wonder started approaching the body, and the others started staring at him with a great deal of suspicion. "What if I told you...There's a little loophole to that rule?"

They looked at each other, and nobody really knew how to react to the Stand's words, they just kept listening silently. Their hopes were very low at that moment, something like that sounded too good to be true.

"What if I told you that a human being can be brought back to life, if another soul is sacrificed in the process? By fusing together a dead, fresh soul with one still alive and kicking, they can be brought back...if intact enough."

Yang's heart started beating faster, "Just….what are you suggesting?"

"It means…I can bring him back to life, but I will have to sacrifice myself to do it." Wonder just kept on smiling, body swinging from side to side as he kept walking, before stopping completely and unnaturally. "A life for a life. Someone dies so someone else can be born, or someone is born so someone else can die, it's the cycle of life itself. And so, a sacrifice is the only way to bring another living being back to life."

It seemed like Wonder didn't get the reaction he expected however. No-one jumped in joy or said anything, they just stared at him with distrust and disbelief.

"Why should we trust you?" Weiss calmly stated. "We don't know what you might do if we let you do what you claim."

"What do you have to lose?" he quickly replied.

"Much more than someone like you could understand." Blake quickly replied, and left it at that.

Wonder shook his head and sighed, "Aah, youths. They lack such a very basic concept like trust, how sad." He laughed, "Oh, and it's not like you have a choice. I will bring him..." He gave the unresponsive body of Jotaro a little nudge with his foot, "...back to life, whether you like it or not. I'm a master-less Stand, so I shouldn't even exist. And again, I can't leave any threads unsolved."

It was a miracle Yang didn't try to cave his skull in for daring to touch Jotaro's corpse. "You'll do it anyway, you say….?"

"Yes, and here's something more: Once I succeed, and I will succeed, all traces of Earth and Stand users will be gone from this world, except for the lucky few who still have these powers and are still alive. Still, the French baguette over there and cherry boy over that-a-way will come back to their world,  _our_  world."

None of them knew how to feel about it. It felt just too good to be true, and trusting a...being like the one in front of them could've somehow even worsened the situation. Before they could come up with a reply, however, Wonder's cloaked body started to fade in little golden particles that started flowing over towards Jotaro, slowly, slowly, like a stream of sparkling water and sticking to his skin.

"You two, come here." He pointed at Polnareff and Kakyoin, who hesitantly stepped forward, one to his right and one to his left as he indicated. After that Wonder ordered them to turn around and face the entirety of Team RWBY. The dissipating Stand cleared his voice and put on something that sounded a bit more serious, like a prophet in a fantasy story: "While these three's journey is coming to an end, yours is not, Team RWBY. I have seen the threads of fate that entwine this world, but only barely, if no-one else will, then I shall reveal to you part of your destiny: Find Ozpin, find the four maidens, find Salem."

"What's he talking about?" Polnareff whispered under his breath.

"I have no idea, why are you asking me?" Kakyoin whispered back.

"Find Ozpin, find the four maidens, find Salem..." Ruby repeated, she had no idea what those words effectively meant. To her, Ozpin was already dead, and she had no idea who or what the maidens and Salem were, but she felt deep in her heart that those words meant something important, much more important than they could ever imagine.

She was the only one to think of it that way, however. The others simply stared at him oddly, and braced themselves to attack if they needed to

Wonder smirked and stepped forward, before kneeling down in front of the body. He glanced upwards at Team RWBY with a trickster's grin. "You're about to experience a great miracle, you really should be grateful. But don't worry, I don't want any thanks."

And then, after all that build-up, Wonder's body….collapsed all at once, like his entire body turned into a small mountain of gold-painted salt that covered Jotaro's body. Just like that, he was gone. The Stand that caused everything to happen in the first place crumbled to dust, and did it with a grin on his face, or at least a grin on his disguise of a face.

They all stared at Jotaro's body for a few seconds. Then those seconds turned to minutes. Nothing had happened.

Polnareff sighed and shook his head. "I don't know why, but that damn bastard was probably lying out of his ass."

Yang looked down at his face and knelt down, slowly lifting his hat up with a saddened expression. She turned it around, looked at the rest of her team and gave her back to the body. "Come on, let's...I don't know, bury him somewhere. I can't stand seeing him out in the open like this."

"Wait..." Blake's perceptive eyes suddenly widened, focusing on something behind the golden-haired girl. "Did I see something moving?"

The others gazed down at where she was looking at:

Jotaro's right hand was twitching, and his pale lifeless skin suddenly looked flush with rushing blood.

They looked at the body and slowly circled around it, casting it hesitant glances and trying to not get their hopes up too high.

But then it happened:

His eyes opened up and he gasped for air, breathing through his mouth several times as he cast confused glances to the others. "I'm...I'm alive." He stated, as if saying it out loud confirmed it for himself.

After that, the group practically lost their minds. They all, without exceptions, screamed and squealed in a mix of confusion, surprise, and joy and started jumping on top of Jotaro like a bunch of ravenous wolves and picking him up for one of the biggest group hugs around.

They tugged at him and practically suffocating him, shouting things like "You came back!" and "I thought you died!"

Jotaro's expression made it obvious that he had absolutely no idea what was happening or had happened to him, but he didn't even know if he cared at that point. He just enjoyed the moment of unity he had with his companions with a smile.

For that moment, all of them could feel joy, it was like the destroyed, deserted city around them disappeared, like nothing bad happened. It might only have been a temporary thing, but for that moment, because of that miracle, they felt like they could forget about it all.

But, of course, that moment couldn't last forever.

Jotaro, Kakyoin and Polnareff felt like they were being….pulled from every direction by an invisible entity. They felt that feeling before: when they first were transported to Remnant.

After disentangling themselves from the hug, they looked at their bodies, and it was exactly as they suspected:

Like how it happened with Josuke, their bodies was slowly becoming fragmented. They didn't feel pain, but instead a rush of peace that covered their bodies.

"Hah, I guess we don't have enough time to have a real celebratory party." Smiling, Jotaro looked up from his hands and faced Team RWBY.

Kakyoin nodded, also smiling. "Josuke's purpose was to destroy the Silver Records, and he returned to his world and time when he did, it seems our shared purpose was to destroy Dio and survive through the battle. Maybe that Stand was not so wrong after all."

"Ah, I see..." The smile vanished from Weiss's expression, and from the others too. "It's going to happen again."

Images of places and people flashed for a moment in the three Stand Users' eyes. Places and people from their world.

"I was expecting a day like this would arrive at some point, but…." Blake rubbed her arm and stared at the ground. "After a moment like that...it just feels cruel."

They all knew that they couldn't stop what was happening to them. But this time was different from Josuke, this time it felt less….bittersweet, like a fitting end to their battle.

But it still didn't mean it was easy to let go. It wasn't, for either of the groups.

Ruby looked straight at them with a troubled and saddened expression. "I...know it's selfish to think this, but….what will we do once you're back to your world? What can we do?"

"Hey, hey, you girls are stronger than a hundred men combined. I don't think you'll have much trouble achieving anything after this point." Polnareff let out a laugh. Then, a light started surrounding the three.

"No, it's not what I meant!" Ruby stepped forward "It's just that...you've been with us for so long that by now you all feel like part of the team." She looked back at her Team and asked: "And I'm sure the other ones feel that way too."

"Then let's make a promise: If we ever find a way to return to this world, we will." Jotaro stated. "But don't think that means you can count on us any more. I don't think your story's over yet, you have to fix this city and become the best team of Huntresses you can be." Those were, by far, some of the most genuine words that he had ever said.

"It has been a wild ride, hasn't it? I truly do feel thankful I was allowed to see and experience this strange world." Kakyoin mused, touching his chin as the light behind them got even brighter.

"Speaking of thanks..." Yang stepped forward and grabbed Jotaro's disappearing hand without a second thought, and looked at him with a smile, "Whether you realize it or not, you truly did help me out on this journey. Thank you."

"Heh, with what? Allowing you to steal my Stand's catchphrase?"

"Even if you managed to do to just that and nothing else, I would still be thankful." She grinned and patted his shoulder. Ruby, in the meantime, slowly sneaked up on her and pulled her back, fearing what might happen if she kept contact with them when they really disappeared.

"Heeey! Why do you have to ruin my moment, sis?" She rustled her hair playfully, laughing as she did.

"She definitely got….I don't know, more punk-ish since when we started." Blake said.

"Oh, and do not misunderstand." Weiss started, hands on her hips. "She is not the only one who is thankful, we all are. You guys were definitely magnets for trouble, but it was fun while it lasted."

Ruby escaped from her big sister's grasp and geniuenly smiled. "From the bottoms of all of our hearts: Thank you."

While Polnareff poised heroically after all the praises, Jotaro tipped his hat. "It's a bit embarrassing, but we're thankful too."

The light shined even brighter behind them, their bodies started to get more and more fragmented, and then they started disappearing entirely, bit by bit. They waved at the group as the light started to cover their bodies.

A stray tear still fell from Ruby's silver eyes as she spoke under her breath: "Goodbye."

And then they were gone.

They wouldn't say it out loud, but every single member of Team RWBY thought the same thing, in their own different way, but the message was the same: "As long as we live, we will never forget you all."

After a few minutes of silence Ruby turned to face her Team and walked over towards the main building of the school. "Come on, Team RWBY! We've got a city to help rebuild and evil creatures to fight!"

After those words, how couldn't they follow her? And as they made their ways through the empty school, their destiny was little by little rewriting itself. Their story had just begun, but...that story is one that will be left to them and them alone.

Because their beginning is our ending.

* * *

"M-Mister Joestar, I really think you should calm down." The Speedwagon Foundation member stated before Joseph Joestar grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off the ground.

"Calm down?! You want me to calm down?! My grandson is gone, and you want me to calm down?! Oh for crying out loud, go and investigate and find them!" It had only been a couple of hours since the disappearance of Jotaro Kujo, and he still remained in his room along with his daughter Holly Kujo, waiting for results from the crystal they had given to the Speedwagon Foundation.

They didn't even realize that whole months passed in another world in those few hours.

"Daddy, I think we don't have to worry, I think Jotaro's being his usual self and taking a walk around without telling us!" Holly seemed far too happy for a mother that lost sight of her teenage delinquent son. But that was just in her nature.

"Bah!" He threw the Speedwagon Foundation member out of the doorway and walked inside the room, adjusting his wide-brimmed hat and becoming more and more nervous by the minute. "Maybe I should try some Spirit Photography again, maybe that would work. Argh! I know it won't, but it's worth another try." The old man mumbled to himself.

Then, suddenly, a white light filled the room.

"WHAT THE-!" He immediately rushed in to wrap his daughter in his arms and protect her from whatever was happening.

He closed his eyes to protect himself to what he instinctively assumed was a Flashbang Grenade. It was only when Holly gasped in surprise that he opened his eyes.

And right in the middle of the room he could see Jotaro, Polnareff, and Kakyoin. He stared at them wide-eyed and with his mouth hanging open. He was in such utter disbelief that when a fly entered his mouth he didn't even react.

"Hello there, Mister Joestar." Kakyoin stated, playing it as cool as possible.

"It's a long story." Jotaro continued.

And finally, Polnareff chimed in:"Why hello there, Miss Holly~"

"Oh!" Holly clasped her hands together, "I get it now, my little JoJo just went out to get a hold of his friends! I'm so proud, I can't believe my little boy finally brought some friends over for a sleepover!"

His mind utterly, but fortunately only metaphorically, blown, Joseph couldn't do anything else but bring his hands to his cheek, widen his eyes, and scream so loud that the heavens themselves would shake:

"OOOOH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!"

[STAND DUST: A JJBA X RWBY CROSSOVER

END]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, the ending has finally come. I hope you enjoyed this fanfiction as much, and possibly even more so than I did. It was a truly fascinating experience that put my writing skills to the test, and I think I came out a better writer because of it. As always, but now more than ever, feel free to give me a review of the fanfic, of the things you liked and the things you didn't like.
> 
> If you stuck to this fanfic since day one, then you truly are a hero worthy of my respect.


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